


Everybody Wants to Rule the World

by J23K



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Victorian, Brotherhood, Brothers, Fatherhood, Fluff and Angst, Revolution, Street Rats, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5721790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J23K/pseuds/J23K
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The four brothers have been caned in their time on the streets, gone days without food, spent nights huddling together to stop from freezing to death, cleaned so many chimneys that their fingers are raw and picked so many pockets to buy just a few morsels of bread. And then Wayne invites them to live with him. And naturally, they don't all exactly trust that. (Victorian Era AU).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. CATCH-22

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kleine_aster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kleine_aster/gifts).



> Authors Note - Even though I posted this on FF first, I'm dedicating this story on this site to Kleine_Aster. She really nails the characters and I would deffo check out some of her works - especially 'Kings of the Underworld' and 'The Kid'. I LOVE YOU KLEINE_ASTER KEEP WRITING WORKS THAT MAKE ME LAUGH AND ARE SO TRUE TO THE CHARACTER :D
> 
> Anyway, this is a crazy experimental story that I'm writing as basically a full novel for FanFiction/AO3. So if the characters seem OOC at the moment, don't worry, they will eventually grow into the characters you know and love. There is also a minor historical discrepancy, in that the American accent wasn't actually all that distinct from the English accent back in the 1900's, but it was there - just not as prominently different as it is now. Still, it was a very important notion to me in the story that they be four American children in Victorian Era London. Don't forget to review!
> 
> Things to note : Coppers are policemen (for all of you who aren't from the UK xD), weasels are rich folks and fop/stooge are pet names for someone you're about to pick-pocket.
> 
> Enjoy!

Damian Wayne was going to pick someone's pocket today.

That weren't a new thing - the lads had picked at least a hundred pockets before this. But today, Damian felt on edge about it. Like  _something was about to go wrong._

“Dapper accent you got there, lads,” Reggie said to them, his freckles accentuating his cheeks. “Where did you say you boys were from?”

Damian was snapped from his thoughts and he looked at Reggie, then he tutted and looked back at the street. “America, Reggie.”

Tim smirked and studied the street below as well. “We were supposed to tell him something different this time, Damian.”

“Not that we’re from India, Tim,” Damian said, his eyes still scanning the street for a target. “We’re not telling him that.”

Dick stood over the roof edge, easily the tallest of the bunch, and smiled that charming smile. A layer of sweat beaded off his murky brow. “He’s gonna forget what we said anyway.”

“Then let him forget,” Damian said, “but we won’t be bad people to him.”

Jason shook his head, his taller frame towering over Damian’s own from next to him. “Proper kill joy you are, lass.”

Damian growled and whipped his body towards Jason. “Well at least I’m not a _wannabe weasel_ like you.”

Jason grabbed Damian’s hat and tugged it further down on his face. “Steady on lass, don’t start what you can’t finish.”

Damian shoved his hat back up and swiped at the empty space Jason was supposed to be in.

“Oi, knock it off,” Dick said and his eyes darted to Damian’s.

Damian clenched his teeth and his finger went accusingly towards Jason. “What? _He started it_!”

“I know he started it,” Dick said, “don’t encourage him. We’ve got work to do.”

Damian grumbled and his eyes went back down towards the street.

“Where them coppers at, Reggie?” Dick said.

“I’m seeing at least two over in that there corner,” Reggie said, pointing over to the left of the street. “Say those are dapper accents you lads have got.”

“ _What? Really? Dapper accents?_ ” Tim said with a smirk.

“Have I said this before?” Reggie asked, his freckled cheeks going red with embarrassment. “Ah sorry lads. I got this memory problem what happens where sometimes I forget finicky facts like that … but it comes back like a minute or so later. It came about when I was - ”

“Kicked by a horse?” Jason asked.

Reggie chuckled. “I told you this before?”

Damian had heard this story at least a thousand times before. His eyes went to Jason. “Who’s your target?”

The dark circles under Jason’s eyes made him look _haunting_. “I’m gonna take the one in white.”

Damian frowned. “I was gonna take that one.”

“Well pick another one, _lass_ ,” Jason said.

Damian scowled, scanning the streets, his brows furrowing. “Errrm … I’ll take the one in the waistcoat, the one without the hat.”

Jason nodded.

He always picked a target far away from Jason – cause Jason would give him a right earache if they ever bumped each other on the street. They needed to keep apart so they couldn’t all be caught should the coppers crack down. And in these busy areas, coppers were on the constant lookout for pick-pockets.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Dick said, “Reggie, keep lookout. Don’t forget where you are this time, yeah?”

“Don’t worry lads,” Reggie said, “I got eyes like an eagle.”

That were true. Reggie had the best pair of eyes Damian’d ever seen. He could spot coppers a mile away.

“Alright,” Dick said, “meet back here in ten minutes, in and out yeah? Coppers’ll probably arrest us on sight in this area.”

Damian nodded again. Even if they were seen in these richer ends, they’d raise some eyebrows from the coppers.

Dick rolled his shoulders. “Let’s go.”

All the brothers nodded. “Aye aye.”

In one fluid movement, all four of the boys leapt off the building; beginning a descent all the way down to the bottom of the building. They moved in unison; years of practice at the circus making this easy; using the building as a support to leap and trot their way to the bottom. As soon as they reached the bottom, they immediately split from each other and concealed themselves in the crowd.

Damian split right and hid off of a street corner. He looked up at Reggie.

Reggie signalled that there were two coppers on the right hand side. All the while he was signalling to the others where the cops were and which directions they were going in.

Damian took a deep breath and shook off his hands. Then he made his way into the crowd and bumped past the taller people.

The crowd was a mess of shouts and murmured conversations, and cotton suits and pocket watches. The women wore dresses that covered their whole bodies and walked alongside rich suitors. Laughs and jeers and the trotting of horses echoed throughout the street. And the smells of bread and sweet cakes wafted around.

Damian tutted. These were the rich folk; feeding off the hard labour of the poor and weak without giving them any returns. They didn’t care about Damian – _they probably didn’t even see him._ He was just of too little worth to these people to care. They wouldn’t ever share their bread with him. But joke was on them, because Damian stole their bread a lot, and it was _fucking_ _delicious_.

The fop Damian had picked was dressed in a good-quality suit; with a silver pocket watch sticking off the side and a slicked back blonde hairstyle.

Damian’s pulse quickened. He slithered through the crowd and made his way towards his target. He looked to Reggie to be sure there weren’t any coppers about.

Reggie was still only making the hand signals for two coppers far to the right of Damian.

Damian rubbed at sweaty palms. That were still a bit too close for comfort for him, but he started forwards again anyway. He’d done this a thousand times before, he could pull this off again right now.

The fop was walking ahead and talking about something regarding factories to his lady friend.

Damian tugged his hat even further down and stalked to a spot ahead of his target. He breathed out slowly and waited for the fop to get close enough.

The man moved in closer to Damian.

Damian’s adrenaline surged and he slunk towards the blonde man. He kept his eyes lowered and snaked past him, slotting his fingers into the man’s pocket with a dexterity that came from years of practice.

_Nothing was in there._

Damian cursed and tutted. He scowled and shook his head, then he paced right on past the fop. He would need to get something before he went back to his gang.

He’d need to make another pass. None of the other weasels in this place would have anything good on them. Sure, they acted like they would, but Damian had an eye for picking out the people who had the _real_ money. The target he had picked was the only one that had something good on him - _guaranteed._ He just really needed to make sure he weren’t caught in these districts, and that would be a little bit harder now.

He moved back around the man and paced directly past him and out into the front.

The fop was at a good distance away now.

Damian licked at dry lips and began walking through the crowd and towards the stooge again. This time he were hoping to try the man’s other pocket. He reckoned his small form meant that he would be able to slip through the two of them unnoticed.

The stooge was in touching distance of Damian now.

Damian’s heart was pumping steadily and he took a breath to calm his fingers. He smoothed his fingers into the man’s coat pocket and reached for something. There was something in there …

The target jerked with a laugh and Damian’s hand was once again disconnected from his prize.

Damian slapped his leg and tutted hard. _No._ He shook his head and started walking back to the fop. It was never normally this hard for Damian to take from his targets. He was getting flustered. But he needed one more pass … just one more pass. He would get it this time. He was really _bloody_ aware that the more times he did this on the same man, the riskier it got. But he didn’t really have a choice. The five lads _would_ eat today.

He paced back towards a place further in front of the fop and shoved past two weasels with a tut.

The target carried on walking forwards and laughing with his lady friend.

Damian rubbed trembling fingers onto his thighs. It didn’t look like his target knew what Damian was trying to do. This should be a breeze … c’mon … just one more time. _Please_ just one more bloody time.

The blonde man was seconds away from him.

He walked past the fop and slipped his fingers into the other man’s pocket.

There was something there.

Damian’s eyes went wide. If that were as much money as Damian thought it were …

It felt like a gigantic wad of guineas.

Damian was almost drooling. That would be enough to feed all of the lads for the rest of the year.

It _had to be_ a roll of pound notes.

He couldn’t even believe his luck! Forget eating one day, they could eat the whole decade off of this! Quick as silver, he took the wad from the man’s pocket.

The man’s lanky fingers seized Damian’s arm.

A bolt of adrenaline shot through Damian and his pulse seized up. His eyes shot to his target’s own.

“What on earth do you think you’re doing?” The man asked.

Damian’s face was pale and he shook his head. All the nerves in his body had seized up and he swallowed. _Shit shit shit._ “N – nothing, sir …”

“Are you – _are you trying to steal from me, boy_?”

Damian’s eyes were wide. “No – no sir, I’m not …”

The man clapped the back of his hand into Damian’s face.

Sharp pain slit through Damian’s cheek and then broke into a dull hum in his ears. He crashed onto the floor and then immediately sprang back up to his feet. He weren’t gonna die here. _Not today._ He had fucked up but he weren’t gonna get caught. He weren’t gonna get caught _he could get away._ He began sprinting towards the buildings on the far side. _He weren’t gonna die here._

“ _GET THAT BOY!_ ” the blonde man shouted.

Panic flooded Damian’s mind and sweat built on his forehead. _He weren’t gonna die here!_ He sprinted towards the buildings. How could he have fucked this up so bad?

The mob of people scrambled to block off Damian as he made his way towards sweet safety. Their arms lashed out to ram back his forward momentum.

Damian’s heart was hammering and he leapt back. He focused his eyes and then he sprinted directly towards them.

They were ready for him and reached out their arms towards him.

A bolt of adrenaline shot through him and he dextrously slid under the men in front of him.

They tried to grasp him but grasped at nothing but the air. “How’d he do that?” one of them said.

Damian’s heart hammered in his chest and he focused on the building in front of him and sprinted towards it. That was _safety._ If he could get there, he’d be able to get away from them all. _That’s all he needed to get to_ _C’MON._

The copper from earlier lurched up from Damian’s side and grabbed him by the scruff of his collar.

His breath hitched in his throat and he instinctively grabbed the copper’s arm. No! _He couldn’t be bloody caught!_ He weren’t getting the bastard noose today. His eyes were wide and he bashed his hands down on the copper’s own.

The copper broke away from Damian’s scruff and clutched his hand.

That were his chance. Damian immediately ducked past him and ripped away from the hands of other weasels like a ghost.

The copper grabbed at the air where Damian should have been and made sounds of frustration behind him.

Damian’s pulse thrummed in his throat and he sprinted his way to the building and latched on with everything he had. He just needed to bloody climb up. _Just climb up._

A hand grabbed his scruff again and ripped him down off the building.

Damian’s eyes were tearing and he clutched onto the hand with a mewl. Shit! Shit! _Shit! NO!_

He was being dragged backwards by his scruff.

Panic had made it’s way deep into Damian’s mind and he dug his feet into the floor.

The copper was stronger though and ripped Damian from his place and away from the building.

Damian _weren’t_ gonna die here. He was definitely faster, he knew that much. He instinctively somersaulted upwards and on his feet.

The copper standing next to him stepped back in surprise and the rest of the crowd stepped back too.

His pulse thrummed in his temple and he dashed forwards to the building again.

The blonde fop from earlier came out from the crowd and cut an open hand into Damian’s throat.

Pain screamed into Damian’s throat and he clutched it and rolled backwards. His eyes were tearing up and he manically darted his sight around to try to find some escape route. He couldn’t even see though; much less make a dash for it. There was just too many _bastard_ people.

The coppers hurled him to the floor and he yelped. Then they went about peppering his body with crunching punches and kicks.

Pure fear surged through Damian and cuts and bruises started ripping open all over his body. They hammered him with everything they had and he tried to clutch everywhere at once. He _was_ gonna bloody die here. And it was all that _bastard_ _blonde_ _man’s_ fault.

“Stop, _stop!_ ” a voice shouted from the crowd and pushed the coppers off of Damian.

A bolt of adrenaline rushed through him and he jolted forwards to sprint away from them again.

The copper clenched him by the scruff and threw him backwards. “Where you going, lad?”

Damian fell backwards and flipped over onto his knees. His eyes came up to plead with the copper’s own green ones.

“What are you stopping this for, Wayne?” Damian’s target said, “the little rat is getting exactly what he deserves. Athletic little shit, too.”

Damian keeled over on the floor and his eyes darted towards all the people around him like a cornered fox.

“He’s a boy,” the man who stopped it said.

Damian noticed he had an American accent, just like Damian himself did. He stood up in front of the new man and clenched his hands together - his eyes pleading and distraught. “ _Please please please sir I’m sorry I won’t do it again I didn’t know what came over me_ _please just let me go and I’ll behave I promise_.”

His target laughed. “Look at that, the lad’s American, Wayne. Just like you.”

Wayne put his hand on Damian’s hair.

Damian still had his hands clutched together and his eyes were wide, teary and fearful. He were scanning for an exit – praying for a little bit of leeway from his begging so that this man would make a mistake and he could sprint back out again. He was unconsciously whispering the word _please_ over and over again whilst his eyes darted around.

“Let me take him, Pearce,” Wayne said, “he doesn’t need to be arrested.”

His target – known as Pearce – guffawed. “Have you gone barking mad, Wayne? The little rat just tried to steal from me! He’s getting nothing but the gallows!”

Panic overset Damian and his heart hammered like a jack rabbit. His eyes brimmed with tears and his hands went even higher as he begged. The line between this being an act to get away and a genuine cry for help was very blurred. “ _No, no, I’m sorry, please just let me go I won’t do it again_.”

“ _He’s a boy, Pearce,_ ” Wayne said again.

“He’s a _thief_ , Wayne,” Pearce said again, “And I didn’t take you for one to defend thieves.”

Tears were streaming down Damian’s face and the man named Wayne’s hand came and stroked through his hair. It were warm on Damian’s head and it made Damian’s eyes water even more as he pleaded with the larger gentleman.

“ _What are you boys waiting for_?” Pearce said, “ _Take him!_ ”

Damian’s heart seized up and he pounced backwards into another copper. _Bloody fuck if he was going to die today!_ He lashed out around him. They weren’t gonna take him anywhere _BLOODY FUCK IF HE WAS GOING TO DIE TODAY._

The coppers leapt at Damian from both sides.

Panic set into him again and he kicked out and scratched and cried and screamed.

They grabbed him with pompous hands and muzzled him with large palms as they pulled him towards a nearby carriage. “Steady on, boy,” one of them said.

Damian roared from their hands and bit into it. He was kicking at the other copper clutching his shins as well.

Wayne’s eyes were focused on Damian.

Damian kicked out and tried to shout for the man but in his panic-ridden mind he couldn’t remember his _bloody_ name. All that bloody sponginess he had with picking new skills up and it weren’t coming to his head.

“A lot of fight in you,” one of the coppers said, dragging him to the back.

He kicked at them and bit and cried even more.

They manhandled him into the back of the carriage and his body crashed into the small space. “Little bugger,” one of them said.

He immediately bolted upwards and sprinted towards the door of the carriage. Then he rammed his entire body forwards.

The door was slammed in his face and locked.

He crashed into the door and roared. Then he stepped backwards and rammed into it again. He punched his fists into it and clawed and kicked as he tried with everything he had to destroy the door.

He screamed louder than he ever had. That bastard had _left_ him. He rammed against all the walls of the carriage as he cried.

The carriage stood still for a short while and then it began the slow clopping of horses jolting it forwards.

He screamed until his lungs were raw and his throat hurt, unrelenting in his merciless attack on the walls of the carriage. _You bastard!_ How could you fucking leave me?! He roared and marched up and down the carriage.

He weren’t … _he wouldn’t die here._

He bolted to the window and scanned out.

His brothers were chasing after the carriage on the rooftops.

They couldn’t save him now! No one could save him. He was going to get the gallows and it was all that _Pearce’s_ fault. He paced up and down the carriage and roared. _He’d kill that bastard._ He’d rip out his throat in front of his eyes and throw it onto the floor.

How the bloody hell did he get out of this? There was actually no _fucking_ way. From here, he would be taken around twenty minutes towards the centre of the city, where he would probably be publicly hanged for his crime. He yelped and his breath hitched in his throat as he madly rubbed his hands over his head. _C’mon!_ All that intelligence and he couldn’t even bloody work out how he was going to get out of this.

If his brothers helped him, he’d be able to screw over both the coppers once they opened the door. But they were bloody big – and Damian didn’t know if he’d be able to take them both. _C’mon Damian think._

Could he plead with the crowd before he was hanged? He shook his head. On the way to the bloody rope, the crowd just egged you and if he tried to rip away then he’d have to deal with another crowd looking for their daily fix of a public hanging. And no-one would listen to his pleas when he finally did get to the rope. _They never did._ He wept hard and brushed his hands over his hair.

He’d have to take out the two coppers as soon as they opened the door to take him out - _he could escape then_. That was the only way. Only two coppers wouldn’t be all that much of a fight. He were taking that lightly of course … they would be a fight, just not as much as a bloody mob of people.

He stood up and shook his head. He tutted and lasered his eyes in on the carriage door. He weren’t going to die today. Not today. Not on the Queen’s life. Not until he made that bastard Pearce pay for this.

-oOo-

Sweat had drenched Damian’s tiny form and his lithe body was jarringly ready to break out when they opened the door.

The carriage came to a screeching stop, and Damian crashed backwards into the wall. His form hurtled into the hard surface and he yelped at the jolt from cuts on his back, then he sprang upright and scanned the door again. He were gonna do this – _he were gonna break out._

They began a conversation in the driver’s seat of the carriage – quite murmurs that didn’t sound like anything.

Damian’s pulse pounded in his temple and his breathing was quick and focused. He couldn’t make out any of the words of the conversation and he couldn’t work out who exactly was talking neither – but his attention was completely concentrated on the door in front of him. His feet were pointed forwards and his eyes were narrow and focused. He was gonna make this work … _he_ _was going to make this work_ …

His heart hammered in his chest and he furrowed his brows at the door then sniffed and wiped at his eyes. He would get out of this _he would._ The conversation was still going on, and Damian couldn’t hear it, but he heard enough to know that there was a third person.

Footsteps beat down the path on the right side of the carriage.

Damian’s pulse beat even quicker and his gaze leered at the door. He was ready. Alert.

The door swung open heavily.

A bolt of adrenaline burst through Damian and he raced towards the front of the carriage, crashing his entire form out of the carriage with a kick.

A large figure caught him and steadied him as he kicked and thrashed. “Easy, easy,” the man said.

A fresh wave of panic flooded through his head and his mind raced as he kicked and yelled. He recognised the voice, but his panic-addled brain couldn’t remember from where. It was deep and American.

“He’s a real keeper, Wayne,” the copper said from the front of the carriage, “you have a jolly good time with him, eh?”

Damian thrashed out in the man’s larger than life grip, biting and spitting and kicking and showing just how much he didn’t want to be there.

The carriage moved away from behind him and he was comforted by the giant figure. “Easy, easy, _shshshsh,_ relax …”

Damian’s mind was overloading with ideas and possibilities and he did everything in his power to break out of the large man’s grip.

Wayne let go of him and he leapt to the floor.

He sprinted away almost as quickly as he was dropped, and couldn’t think of any rational thoughts.

His brothers were stood in front of him and formed a line on the empty street.

He practically crashed into Dick and wrapped his arms around the older boy and clutched on with everything he had. His breathing was quick and his eyes were afresh with tears. He tightly closed them and squeezed onto Dick as if he were the only lifeline that could save him.

“He’s a real fighter,” Wayne said.

Damian’s breath kept getting caught in his throat and he cried in Dick’s arms. He couldn’t remember a time he were bloody happier to see Dick.

“That he is,” Dick said, his voice vibrating against Damian’s cheek.

Damian clutched on even tighter, his panicked brain finding so much happiness in his brother’s grip. He wished the older boy would never let go of him.

“Why did you do that?” Tim asked Wayne.

Damian’s eyes were tightly shut and tears strolled down his chin and onto the floor.

“I couldn’t let him be hanged for a crime as simple as pickpocketing,” Wayne said.

“ _Noble of you_ ,” Jason said.

Wayne said nothing for a while. “Look, if you boys need a place, I have fresh beds and hot water … if you need a place to stay.”

In his current state, Damian was so relaxed, so peaceful.

“You a saviour of children too, huh?” Dick said.

That same vibration off Dick’s chest. It made Damian forget everything for a minute and he squeezed onto Dick even harder. His chest was warm and soft.

“I do what I can as often as I can,” Wayne said.

Dick and Jason exchanged glances. Then Dick looked back to Wayne. “You said beds?”

Wayne nodded. “And hot water.”

Dick looked to his brothers. “Well look mister, we appreciate your offer but we don’t …”

“We want to talk about it,” Jason said.

Damian’s eyes snapped to Jason. What? _What the bloody hell was he on_? There wasn’t anything to talk about. _They weren’t gonna stay with that weasel_.

Dick’s eyes flared. “Jason, you …”

“ _Let’s_ … just talk about it before we jump to any conclusions, okay?” Jason said.

“Absolutely,” Wayne said, “take your time.”

Dick turned both himself and the clinging Damian away from Wayne. And as soon as he did, his brothers squeezed in to cuddle him now that they perceived less danger. They reached in on Damian all at once and enveloped him with hugs.

He was elated and his face stretched into a huge smile whilst being squeezed by the three warm bodies of his brothers.

“We really thought we lost ya’, buddy,” Tim said and brushed Damian’s hair.

Damian nodded, a bright smile stretched over his face. “Me too.”

“You gave us a mighty scare there, you did,” Jason said and clutched his cheek.

Damian slowly nodded and his heart’s pace began returning to normal.

Dick was shaking his head. “We didn’t know what we were gonna do if you got the rope.”

Damian was still nodding. His breathing and his body were relaxing a lot more.

Jason was lost in thought. “That weasel saved you.”

Damian’s eyes immediately became alert and his heart spiked again. His eyes jagged up towards Dick’s own and looked directly into them. “No.”

Tim spoke quietly. “You off your rocker, Jason? We can’t trust him. He’ll probably give us to the workhouse first thing in the morning.”

Dick shook his head. “Nah, he paid off them coppers.”

“What?” Damian said, “did he?”

Jason scratched his head. “How much we talking?”

“I don’t know,” Tim said, “it were definitely _shillings_ though _._ ”

“ _No_ ,” Damian said through gritted teeth, “we don’t need him.”

Jason sat next to Damian. “How much do you reckon he paid?”

“A _lot,_ ” Tim started, “a lot more than he should have. I saw a lot of notes.”

Damian tutted and stepped closer to Jason. “ _You’re not listening to me._ ”

“Why would he pay so much for us if he was just gonna sell us off?” Jason asked.

Damian growled. “You’re not really thinking about this, are you _Todd_?”

“Damian, he’s giving us beds,” Dick said.

Fury ripped through Damian and his teeth gritted. “ _I don’t care_.” He looked back at Wayne. “ _He’s a bloody weasel._ ”

Wayne stood watching the boys. He was too far away to hear anything.

Damian turned back to the boys. “We can’t live with that bastard.”

Tim shook his head. “You’re just saying that because you’re putting him with your near-death experience.”

“Tim,” Damian pleaded, “ _please._ We don’t need him.”

“The nights are getting colder, Damian.” Dick put his hand on Damian’s shoulder. “If he can get us some place to stay then _we need him._ ”

Damian was seething and he shrugged Dick’s hand off his shoulder with a tut. “If you stay with him, I leave.”

“Na, don’t be like that,” Dick said, “we’ll only stay for one night. If he tries anything like selling us off, then we’ll beat him down. There’s four of us, there’s only one of him. And let’s be honest, we don’t exactly struggle in fights.”

“ _I don’t want to though_ ,” Damian said – almost as if it were a last resort.

Dick furrowed his brows. “What do you lads think?”

“Damian I know how you feel,” Tim said, “but it’s worth a shot, innit?”

Damian grit his teeth and looked to Jason.

“I mean we can always just take him down if he screws us,” Jason said, “ _he’s_ _one_ _bloody_ _guy_.”

Damian tutted and looked to Dick again, pleading with him once more with his eyes. “Don’t do this.”

“Damian,” Dick said and sat down. “Do you trust me, yeah?”

Damian thought about this for a while and didn’t say anything. He did trust him but he _didn’t trust Wayne._ This were a mistake, there was no way that man wished well for them …

“Then I promise you we’ll be safe,” Dick said, “we’ll go with him.”

A heavy feeling clumped in Damian’s throat. He turned around and away from his brothers while he thought. Betrayal seethed through him and his hands were loose fists at his sides. His eyes darted left and right on the floor while he contemplated.

_He couldn’t leave his brothers_. Not now. Not when they could be in some danger with this man. But every ounce of him didn’t want to stay with that man for even a second. Wayne could be any kind of man, and Damian didn’t trust him.

He sniffed and closed his eyes. _He couldn’t leave his brothers, though_. He could _never_ leave his brothers. He would just have to be on alert for one night until they decided to leave Wayne. It were simple, weren’t it? Just one night? He turned towards them, looking into Dick’s eyes. “We’ll only be there for one night?”

Dick nodded.

He thought for a long moment. “Alright,” he nodded, “but just _one night_.”

Dick smiled and rubbed Damian’s hair.

Damian turned away and tutted. If he couldn’t leave, he could at least show them how much they all _pissed_ him off.

Dick stood up to face Wayne.

“Have you come to a conclusion?” Wayne asked.

His patience surprised Damian and made the lad tut again.

“We’ll come,” Dick said, “but only for one night.”

Damian flinched at these words.

Wayne nodded. “Well I hope that I can change your mind about that before the day is up.”

_Not bloody likely._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic was inspired by Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Lorde. Kinda runs through the whole story really :/ leave a comment if you enjoyed. If you enjoyed and also want to read the second chapter, it's over on FF for now. I'll move it onto here too soon, but I want to do a slight bit of editing on it first.
> 
> Also, Kleine_aster if you made it this far in the work OMG I LOVE YOU YOU'RE SO COOL MARRY ME? xD  
> What's happening with your works? Are you going to be posting any new ones? Any in the pipelines? Hit me up! I'd hit you up but I can't work out how to send messages on ao3 just yet :(


	2. For Free? (Interlude)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still no word from Kleine_Aster yet, but I'm holding out!

“Heroes aren’t born, they’re made,” Wayne said as they strode back to his house.

Damian was broken from his thoughts and he snapped upright then tripped away from Wayne and onto the road. His eyes shot to the gent, and he could see the weasel’s breath in the cold night air. It sent a shiver right through his spine. “What?”

Wayne smiled and continued striding alongside Damian towards his mansion. “It’s something my father used to say. I think it has a lot of relevance to your situation today. You were very brave _._ ”

The weasel _was_ hiding something. No weasel were that nice, and every weasel had skeletons in their closets. The lads didn’t see it, but Damian did. Who … who spent so many _fucking_ guineas on four street lads? “Mr Wayne, I’m gonna walk ahead. Please don’t talk to me.”

“Wait - you’re hurt. Let me look at you first.”

Damian swatted Wayne’s hand away with a tut, then he trudged ahead of Wayne and the lads. Damned if he were gonna let Wayne touch him. “No thanks.”

“Eh Damian,” Dick said and sprinted up next to him. “Let him look at you innit. You’re hurt.”

“He’s not gonna touch me, Dick,” Damian said.

Dick frowned. “Damian …”

“It’s not even that bad, Dick,” Damian said without looking at Dick, “honest it’s not even that bad, it just looks bad to you. We been through worse, anyway.”

Dick said nothing, and Damian knew he didn’t believe him, but he didn’t really care right now. He just needed time to _think._

“Alright Damian,” Dick said, “we’re always here for you, yeah? If you need me, just give me a shout.”

Damian nodded with a brief smile. “I know. Just give me some time, innit.”

Dick smiled as well, thick black hair gleaming in the moonlight. “Alright,” he said, then walked back towards Wayne and the other lads.

Damian lad had some peace and quiet now, and he needed this to ease his broken mind. His muscles dully thrummed in pain and he stretched his neck. He would do _brilliant_ with some bloody sleep right now.

Most of the rest of the journey back was quiet, with Wayne talking to the other lads and Damian marching along in front. Wayne did eventually try to make efforts to talk to him about his bruises again, but Damian brushed him off – at which point Dick gave Damian an earache about being rude. Damian tutted and brushed Dick off too, striding even further away from them and wiping his nose with a murky sleeve. What did they not understand about _peace and bloody quiet?_

“Is he okay?” Wayne asked from behind Damian.

“Yeah,” Dick said, “he’s just a bit angry sir, is all.”

“But he’s hurt,” Wayne said.

Damian tutted and carried on marching ahead of them. He _were_ actually here. They didn’t have to talk about him like he weren’t.

“Awr he’ll never admit it, sir,” Tim said, “he hides his hurts from everyone else.”

Jason smiled. “Like a rabbit, sir.”

 _Like_ a _rabbit_? Damian tutted and continued walking. These lads were too _bloody_ cosy with Wayne. It’s like they didn’t even think that people like _Wayne_ were the reason people like _the lads_ were living on the streets. They didn’t even give a shit about that - all they cared about was the _stupid bloody_ mansion they was about to go to. Damian grazed at the dried cut on his lip with his tongue and frowned. He nearly bloody died today and all they could care about was a _stupid bloody_ mansion _._

They came to Wayne’s mansion quicker than Damian realised and the gentleman showed them in, _shepherding_ them to the washrooms, the bedrooms, the kitchen and the dining hall. He only skipped over one door in his entire house but it still made Damian suspicious. ‘ _It’s not much,_ ’ Damian remembered Wayne saying, ‘ _but this will be your bedroom for the night_ ’. That were an understatement - it was _bloody_ _big._ And nicer than any bedroom he’d ever stayed in. It just made him dislike Wayne even more though, because it were clear signs that Wayne _was_ and always would be a weasel first. Born into money, and riches, and wealth.

And so when the youths took to ravaging their bodies in the silk sheets and exclaiming in luxury, Damian took a deep breath and walked to the window sill. He perched himself on top with a frown.

His brain was so alive, it hurt. Damian knew in his heart that he wouldn’t let Pearce just get away with what he’d done, but he couldn’t let his brothers stay here neither. Not when they were his life. One way or another, the lad was going to find out what was scratching at him about Wayne.

And then he’d show his brothers.

He sniffed and clenched his fists.

ooooo

The lads took turns to have baths over the next hour, leaving only Damian cushioned on the floor unwashed. “You know what I don’t get about Wayne?” Damian asked, watching Tim hurtle Jason into the wall with a grunt. The two older lads were sparring to keep fit, and they were bloody good.

“What’s that?” Dick said from the window sill behind him, “eh, have a bath, innit Damian. You smell right rotten.”

Damian shook his head. “What I don’t get about Wayne is he beat the carriage faster than you all did.”

“What you talking about?” Dick asked, “the carriage you were arrested in?”

Damian nodded and watched Jason counter Tim with a hook to his jaw, only to be jabbed in the chest by Tim. “I saw you and the lads sprinting for my carriage. So how did he catch it when no-one back at Lace Market can beat your lads’ speed?”

Dick shrugged. “Maybe he had a carriage.”

“I didn’t see no carriage, Dick. He were on foot. He _had to be._ ”

Dick chuckled. “Awr is that right, yeah?”

Damian furrowed his brows. “I don’t trust him, Dick.”

“Yeah, I think we all know that, Damian. Look.” Dick hopped off the window sill and down next to him.

Damian hesitated a glance at him. After a good wash, the elder lad’s hair was looking right dapper and thick.

Dick clutched his arm around Damian. “I know you han’t got that trust for Wayne, Damian, but this mansion is _good._ This is the best life we’re gonna get.”

“ _He knows Pearce, though_.”

Dick shrugged. “All these rich blokes know every other rich bloke. That don’t mean he’s in line with Pearce.”

Damian said nothing.

“Would it make you feel better if we got back at Pearce?”

Damian’s veins burned with rage at the mention of the name. “Na, his time will come. But not yet. Not right now.”

Dick nodded, and the two boys were silent for a short while watching Tim and Jason spar.

“Eh do you know what’s bugging me?” Dick finally asked.

“What?”

“It’s that Wayne’s got the same second name as you,” Dick said, “ain’t that a bit bizarre?”

Damian shrugged. He hadn’t really given it much thought until now. “Wayne’s a common name, innit?”

“Maybe,” Dick said, “but didn’t you say that you didn’t know your dad?”

Damian grit his teeth. “Wayne’s not my dad.”

“Yeah, but Damian …”

“ _Wayne’s not my dad._ ”

Dick said nothing at that – clearly seeing the lad’s discomfort at the question.

He were glad Dick chose not to prod that any further. The thought of Wayne being his dad made Damian shiver.

Dick chuckled as if out of the blue. “Go have a bath, Damian. You’re dirty and bruised.”

Damian tutted. “ _You’re not my dad neither._ ”

ooooo

The bathroom was bigger than their room, with a mirror and a tub in the middle.

And the bath was _inviting_ , with a lavender smell emanating from the water.

Damian was bursting to leap in, and he tugged off sticky clothes and chucked them into the corner. He licked at the dried cut on his lip again and carefully fingered at it.

There was a little bit of blood on his fingers.

He frowned and looked in the mirror.

His body was looking _sore._ Small cuts and bruises had ripped the skin on his whole upper torso, and his shoulder roared in pain. He hadn’t shown any of the lads - or Wayne - just how bad it was on the walk over, but now the pain made his muscles tremble.

He slowly fingered the bruise growing on his left shoulder and winced with a frown. Then he took a deep breath and leaned onto the bath.

_Pearce._

The word itself tore into Damian’s mind like the plague and he burned inside. Pearce were the reason he nearly died. The gent thought he had the upper hand back in the crowd. Back in the crowd, Damian didn’t have the advantage, he’d admit it. But one on one, he’d show Pearce exactly what happened when you condemned to death street lads you didn’t even know. Damian restrained himself from smashing his hand into the wall. _The bastard didn’t deserve to be alive_. There was no justice system for people like him. But he wanted Pearce to rest assured, that he would see justice. Before Damian left Wayne’s house, he’d go to the downstairs of Wayne’s mansion and find a knife. Then he’d ram it into that _blonde prick’s throat_. And whilst Pearce bled out on the floor, his eyes rolling into the back of his head, Damian would _watch_.

The lad sniffed again and seized one trembling hand with the other. He took a deep gulp and then climbed into the bath.

The water immediately enveloped him with warmth that tingled all the way to his ears. Every nerve and bruise lit up with the unknotting of stress whilst at the same time stinging with fire _._ It was a very strange feeling to him, but he practically _melted_ into the warmth and closed his eyes anyway. All the muck and filth that had crusted on his body was being broken away by the water.

Now he had time. Time to think and reflect on what he were gonna do.

He let his body rest in the water and he began to think deep – like he liked doing. If he were gonna get to Pearce, he needed to leave Wayne’s house first. The lads wouldn’t stay one night – they would stay the whole rest of their lives if Wayne let them, and that thought made Damian shiver.

He focused his mind. If Wayne were hiding something, Damian would be able to find it in the house. But Wayne wouldn’t hide it in plain sight – he’d hide it somewhere secret. Somewhere that no-one would think of looking.

But that were _if_ he were actually hiding something, ‘cause right now Damian were going on a hunch. He frowned and sunk further into the bath.

But what about if it were the door Wayne skipped?

Damian’s eyes opened. When giving them the tour, Wayne had skipped straight past it – which was very bizarre because he had shown them every other room in the mansion.

Damian clenched his fists. He knew what he’d do. He’d check behind the door. If Wayne were hiding something, he’d be keeping it there.

He sniffed.

It were worth a shot.

ooooo

It was time to get to work.

Damian dabbed his hair with his towel and stepped out of the washroom, bare feet hitting the cold wooden floor. He was surprised Wayne had managed to find pyjamas for them all, but he guessed weasels knew connections even this late at night.

The door stood at the opposite side of the corridor Damian was standing in.

His heart started beating steadily and he crept through the corridor like a shadow. He stalked his way towards the door at the end.

It weren’t exactly a different door. To be honest, it was completely normal.

He furrowed his brows. Why did Wayne skip this one? And was it such a good idea to be shimmying around in there? He’d get booted out by Wayne if he was caught, and then the lads would never forgive him. He looked across both sides of the corridor and focused on the door again. Then he walked towards it and focused his eyes on the handle. So he _just couldn’t get caught_.

The door handle practically glowed when he looked at it.

He clutched his fingers on the handle and pulled down.

_Locked._

The hairs raised on the back of his hand and he took a few steps back. There was no bloody reason for this door to be locked. Nobody ever locked their doors back at Lace Market – except when they had something to hide. So what were Wayne hiding behind this door?

Damian furrowed his brows again and studied all four corners of the door. His eyes soaked in every nook and crack.

Now he was definitely getting into this room. And when he found out what Wayne was hiding, he’d rub it into all the lad’s faces. He paced back towards the attic bedroom and clambered up the stairs. Then he stepped into the bedroom and all the lads looked at him.

Tim smiled, his topless frame lightly covered in sweat. “Bloody hell Damian, you’re looking right dapper after that bath. Did you use that fancy soap?”

“Something’s scratching at my head,” Damian said, “about Wayne.”

Jason chuckled. “What? _Really_? _Something’s scratching at your head?! I can’t believe it!_ ” Jason’s face went deathly straight again. “But seriously Damian, aren’t you just gonna let us spend even one night here in peace, for the love of _bloody_ Christ?”

Jason’s sarcasm weren’t appreciated. “No I will,” he said with a frown, “ _I will._ But I want to check something out first. And I need your boys’ help.”

“Alright,” Dick said, “what do you need?”

Damian shifted in his place and scratched at the back of his neck. “Wayne’s … got a locked room. And I want to jimmy it and find out what’s inside.”

Jason’s eyes went wide and Tim came off the wall. Dick sat up and watched Damian.

A warmth crept across Damian’s cheeks and he shifted in his place again. Maybe he were poking the bear right here, but he wouldn’t be able to rest until he at least had a _little_ look. “Look, you lads want me to live with him, nah? Then let’s just take a quick look around the room.”

“Nah,” Jason said, the dark circles under his eyes accentuated by the lantern light, “there’s no bloody way we’re sneaking around this gent’s house. If he catches us, we’ll get the boot, for sure.”

That weren’t the answer Damian were looking for. He tutted. “He paid coppers off for us, _idiot_. And he didn’t just bloody pay them off, we’re talking enough guineas to buy a yard. Who does that for four street lads? Who does that for _anyone_?”

The black circles stood out under Jason’s eyes. He’d had them circles for as long as Damian could remember. “Not everything is bloody logic, lass.”

“I know that,” the youngest lad said, “but there’s too much that don’t make sense.”

“Like what?” Tim asked with genuine concern.

Damian twitched his lips to the right and licked at the dried cut on his lip. “Well, I were telling Dick earlier, but Wayne managed to beat the carriage, innit? Even though we couldn’t.”

“Look I’m not gonna lie, lad, it were suspicious,” Dick said, “but it don’t really prove much. He probably had a carriage.”

Damian shrugged. “It might have been but …”

“I don’t think it were a carriage,” Tim said.

All the boys looked at him.

Tim licked his lips. “I think he _did_ beat it on foot.”

A bolt of adrenaline shot through Damian and his eyes focused on Tim. His fists clenched and he studied Tim carefully. What the bloody hell? Where did that information come from? “What?”

Tim shrugged. “Alright, look, before I start, I want you lads to know I’m not sure exactly what I saw, but … I think I saw him running over the opposite rooftops whilst we were chasing the carriage.”

Damian’s ears peaked at this. “What did you see, Tim?”

“Well it were dark,” Tim said, “but I’m not normally wrong about what I see.” He bit his lip and shrugged. “I saw a gent - at least I think it were a gent - moved more like a shadow, to be honest. But he were rushing over the rooftops on the other side of us. And he _were_ fast.”

Damian’s adrenaline spiked again and he instinctively stepped closer towards Dick seeking comfort. Wayne were like a shadow? How much truth were there in Tim’s words? The younger lad frowned. Tim wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t playing on his mind.

“What?” Jason said, “you din’t think about telling us this before?”

Tim shrugged. “Well I’m not exactly _sure_ what I saw, Jason. It might have been Wayne but I’m not definitely _sure_ it were.”

“Maybe it were your imagination,” Jason said.

Dick shook his head, thick hair gleaming in the lantern light. “It weren’t his imagination, Jason. He’s not _seven._ ”

Damian licked his lips. There was only one way to be sure. “We need to check the room, Dick. We need to be sure it weren’t Wayne.”

“No.” Jason growled and snapped towards Damian. “ _No we don’t need to check the room, Dick_.”

Damian tutted and lasered in on Jason. “You just _heard_ the bloody story, we need to be sure if it were Wayne.”

“Exactly, we’re not _sure_ it was Wayne,” Jason said, “but I’m _sure_ we will get booted out when we get caught in that room.”

Damian turned to Dick. “Dick.”

Dick smiled at Damian. “Look, if the lad wants to check it out then …”

“Nah!” Jason snapped towards Dick. “I know what your gonna say. You’re gonna go with him. And what you’re asking, _Dick,_ is we bloody scrap everything on a fucking hunch. Am I hearing that right, yeah Damian?”

Damian grit his teeth and pivoted towards Jason. “If he’s hiding something, we need to know _stand down Todd_.”

Dick smiled again and put his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Look, if our Damian wants to check it out, let’s check it out. It’ll only take us like two minutes, anyway.”

Damian smiled again and went to stand next to Dick. He clasped his fingers into Dick’s own, eliciting a smile from the elder lad. Maybe he couldn’t understand why people did things sometimes, but he sure knew how to make Dick do what he wanted him to.

Jason’s face was going red and it contrasted deeply with the black circles under his eyes. He shrugged Dick’s hand off his shoulders. “You don’t _get_ to make that choice, Dick. You’re not just gonna do whatever the fuck you want again and then get us to pick up the pieces.”

Damian’s fist clenched. Jason was a bit hot-headed when it came to Dick’s choices, and Dick never backed down. This could lead to a fight. He stepped forwards between them. “Let’s just go check the room and forget about this.”

But Dick weren’t having none of it. “You questioning my choices again, yeah Jason?”

The hairs raised on the back of Damian’s neck and he stepped directly in between the brothers now. Damned if they were gonna fight today. “We don’t need to do this right now, we just need to find out what’s behind that door.”

“ _You’re damn right I am_ ,” Jason said, “you lads don’t seem to get this, but I’m actually looking out for _you_ all.”

No no no, this weren’t gonna end well for any of them. Damian clenched his fists and glared into Jason’s eyes. “ _Stop_.”

Dick smiled that charming smile. “You sure, Jason? Because it sounds like your thinking about yourself again.”

“ _Dick,”_ Damian said, “leave it out _._ ”

“Alright look,” Tim said, blocking Jason off. “This ain’t the time for this. _We keep peace_.” Tim shoved Jason back. “We’re brothers first, alright? So we don’t _fight amongst each other_. We stick to our principles and we _follow_ what Dick says. Eh, _Jason._ You agreed to that just as much as me, Dick and our Damian.”

Jason roared and blocked the stairway. “That’s bollocks. Dick, you’ve lost your _fucking marbles_ if you think we’re wasting this chance.”

Damian’s stomach churned and he bolted in front of Jason, looking into his eyes. “Jason, _please_ get out of the way.”

“Yeah, what is your problem with this, Jason?” Dick said.

“ _My fucking problem,_ ” Jason said, ignoring Damian, “is that you’re gonna run us into the ground, _Dick_.”

Damian stepped back and thought through his options. Why were no _bloody options_ coming to his head? How did he defuse _bastard_ emotions between people _?_ Why couldn’t he crack things like this?

“Every choice you make is a stupid bloody choice,” Jason said, “and we lose out _every_ _time_.”

Tim came between them. “Alright, stop this lads. We’re brothers, innit?”

“No, I make the best choices with what I have, Jason!” Dick said, “that’s all I can _fucking do_!”

Damian’s brain burned through the options he had and he watched Jason quickly.

“ _Your choices run us into the ground, Dick_ ,” Jason spat, “how much longer are we gonna have to keep suffering because of your ridiculous choices? It was your choice to leave the circus and it was your choice to _fucking_ send Damian out there to die.”

Dick’s face was pale. “Jason, _I do my best_!”

“ _It’s not fucking good enough!_ ” Jason’s face was thoroughly red now. _“_ Damian nearly died thanks to you, and now you want to break into a room that’s not ours for what? So we can get caught and kicked out of the only good _fucking_ thing that’s ever happened to us?”

A bolt of adrenaline shot through Damian and he glared into Jason’s eyes. “ _I made that choice._ Stop talking.”

Jason tutted. “Arh, bone to you an’ all, _lass_. You’ve had it in for Wayne since he’s saved us and now you’re stopping us from living the life we want because you lost your mom to weasel’s mistakes. _Well bloody news flash_ , Damian, Wayne didn’t kill your _stupid fucking mom …_ ”

Dick’s fist rammed into Jason’s jaw from the side. “ _I had enough of you!_ ”

It was a whir to Damian and his thoughts were lost on Jason’s words.

Jason crashed to the ground, then he rose onto one knee rapidly.

Dick threw his fist into Jason’s jaw hard, and then again for good measure.

Jason struck the wooden floor with his entire body and clutched his jaw.

Dick shook his hand off and pointed at Jason. “ _You’re bloody dynamite, you are! And one of these fucking days, you’re gonna go off and take us all with you!”_

Jason sniffed from the floor and spat blood. Then he rolled onto his back and sniffed again.

“ _The only reason,_ ” Dick said, “ _we work well together is because of each other. And you are ALWAYS the weak link. Your talents don’t mean shit if you can’t control that flipping temper and go with the crew!_ ”

Damian frowned.

Dick shook his head and then shook off his slowly bruising hand. He looked at the floor for a few seconds with a clenched jaw – as if deep in thought - and then he shuffled towards Damian and Tim with a sniff.

“ _Dick_ ,” Tim said.

“I know,” Dick said, “I lost my temper I’m … I just need to watch out for you lads, innit? And I know Jason’s not a threat but … look, let’s just go check this room, yeah?”

Damian peered over to Jason.

The dark-eyed lad sat up onto his haunches and leaned against the wall. He looked off into the distance and rubbed his jaw with his fingers.

He looked like he were _hurting_. Maybe Damian couldn’t read people, but he could read Jason. “You didn’t have to do that, Dick,” he said.

“He insulted your mom, Damian,” Dick said.

Damian shook his head. “Jason din’t kill my mom. _Weasels did that_.”

Tim narrowed his eyes. “ _Dick._ ”

“Look, he’s uncontrollable,” Dick said, “you saw it, none of us could calm him down. Let’s just go check this room, yeah? I’ll say sorry to Jason later.”

Damian nodded with a frown. But he would still try and fix this. Jason couldn’t be left out of their circle right now.

Dick strode directly past Jason and out of the room without looking at him.

Tim walked past Jason and saluted him with a kind smile.

Damian figured he should try to soothe the dark-hearted lad, but he didn’t really know what to say. “I’ll see you later, Jason,” Damian said, “don’t hurt yourself too much, yeah?”

Jason said nothing and kept his eyes on the floor.

Damian frowned again and then crept down the stairs and away from his brother. The lads didn’t exactly see that the threat was out there, not in themselves. It were people like Pearce they should be fighting and not each other. He tutted and stepped out into the corridor.

Dick was leaning on the bannister next to Tim. “ _I hear that, Tim,_ ” Dick whispered, “ _I’m … I’m doing the best I can with this leadership thing. But I don’t always get it right, y’know? Just … watch out for Jason, yeah? And let him know that I do love him._ ”

Damian came up and stood next to him. “ _I’ll let him know_.”

Tim stood also leaning on the bannister and nodded. “ _We’ve got your back, Dick. Whatever happens, he’s one of us_.”

Damian full-heartedly agreed with that. “What do we do, Dick?” Damian said quietly.

Dick said nothing and watched over the bannister.

Was Dick doubting himself? “You’re a good leader,” Damian said, “even the best of us make mistakes sometimes.”

Dick nodded and smiled. “Alright, I’ll … go downstairs and keep Wayne busy. You lads check that room and see if there’s anything going on. You find anything fishy, you come get me and tell Jason too. And Tim - look after our Damian, yeah?”

Damian tutted. “I can look after myself, Dick.”

Dick smiled that charming smile. “Even so – look out for him, yeah Tim?”

“ _I got you,_ ” Tim said and fished into his pocket for a bobby pin. “ _Come on then, lad._ ”

Damian joined Tim.

“Good luck, lads,” Dick said from behind them and then started down the stairs.

They nodded to Dick and then walked side-by-side to the mysterious door.

“That were bad, weren’t it?” Damian said to Tim.

“That were bloody _bizarre_ ,” Tim said with a smile, “I saw Dick sock Jason and I was like ‘ _bloody Mary_ , that was harsh’.”

Damian smirked and walked towards the door. “I ain’t seen Dick angry like that in a while.”

Tim nodded again. “I know, I was looking at Dick and it was like fire was coming out of his nostrils and I was shitting bricks thinking ‘ _is that lad alright?’_ ”

Damian chuckled with his eyes on the floor. Trust Tim to lighten every mood. “Here, give me the pin, I’ll do it.”

Tim nodded and gave him the lockpick, then he leaned against the door. “Hurry yeah, Wayne’s just downstairs. We stay in here for the littlest time we can. Even if Dick’s got a silver tongue, he won’t be able to keep Wayne downstairs forever. You reckon you got this lock?”

Like a painting in motion, Damian visualised the lock in his head. Five points whereas he were used to three. Damian started working the lock quickly and his brows were furrowed in concentration. “I never done it before. It’s got five points, this one.” He smiled. Maybe he couldn’t work out how to get people to calm down, but he were _right dapper_ with things like this. ”But I’ll get it.”

Tim chuckled quietly. “It’s bloody good how you can learn things so easily like that.”

Damian worked the lock with his tongue slightly out of his mouth in concentration.

“There’s only so many times Dick’s gonna tolerate Jason,” Tim said.

Damian stopped for a second and looked to Tim. “What? D’you reckon?”

“It’s building,” Tim said, “the tension between the two of ‘em. You could probably cut it with a knife. And there’s only so many times Jason’s gonna be overruled by Dick before he does _actually_ go off like dynamite.”

Damian shook his head and started working the lock again. “Jason’s one of us. He always has been. You notice how he gets violent but he never hits any of us back? Like ever?”

Tim nodded.

“It’s because he’ll always pick us before everything else,” Damian continued, “he cares for us too much, and even Dick knows that.”

The lock clicked and Damian pushed open the door.

“ _Nice job on the lock_ ,” Tim said, “I really hope you’re right.”

Damian were right. He knew he were.

Tim stepped into the room and looked around.

Damian’s stomach churned and he stepped into the room as well. Here it was. The secrets to Wayne were behind this door.

“ _Eh lads,_ ” Jason said from behind them.

A bolt of adrenaline burst through Damian and he pivoted around to face Jason. His eyes darted between Jason’s own and Tim swerved around too.

Jason had his hands up in surrender. “I figured you lads could use a hand.”

Tim cocked his head. “What? You had a change of heart, yeah?”

Jason looked into Damian’s eyes and the black circles under his eyes resonated in the light. “I’m sorry, I’m just … I was trying to look out for you lads, y’know? Wayne’s house is better than the life we got out there.”

Damian said nothing.

“It’s alright,” Tim said with a smile, “no-one’s dead, innit?”

Jason nodded and sniffed. “Do you … d’you reckon I’m dynamite as well?”

Nah, Damian didn’t think he were dynamite, just … a bit rash, innit?

“Nah,” Tim said with a smile, “you’re just a retard.”

Jason chuckled and stepped into the room. “Let’s check it out.”

Damian nodded, part of him glad for Jason being there too. Wayne still put him on edge, and he liked the extra support Jason would be able to give. He turned around and took in the room.

For the most part, it was an ordinary room. A simple bed was in the corner of the room, and a bookcase on the far side. A simple rug also lay in the middle. Only one small window let in the moonlight from the far side.

It was all a bit perfect for Damian.

Tim’s eyes scanned around the room. “It’s a bit odd that he’d keep this behind a brand new lock, nah?”

Jason nodded. “Yeah, very odd. Let’s check about.”

The boys started searching around the room, with Tim checking the bed and Jason checking the desk.

Damian carefully crept over to the bookcase on the far side. What were in these books? He carefully fingered the covers like they were precious jewels and tried to read some of the book names. _The …_ he squinted, trying to read harder, _The Long Hall_ … he pulled the book out and squinted even harder. _The Long Halloween_? He frowned. It would be bloody dapper if he could actually read what were inside these books.

“What did you find?” Jason asked.

“Nah, nothing,” Damian said, “just a book.”

Jason looked to the rest of the books whilst Tim checked carefully under the bed. His eyes went to a bright green covered one and he pulled it out. “Eh, what’s this one?”

Behind the book was a little button.

Jason didn’t straight away see it, but Damian did. He furrowed his brows. It were just hidden behind the book. Why was it hidden behind the book? “Eh,” he said to Jason, “what’s that?”

Jason looked at it from the book and his brows furrowed. “What the bloody hell is that?” He tried pushing it in.

Nothing happened.

Damian stood on the bookcase and looked at it. “It looks like a normal button.”

Jason kept pushing it and nothing happened.

Damian pressed it once.

The bookcase clicked and pushed slightly out of place.

A pulse of adrenaline pumped through Damian and he leapt off the bookcase with wide eyes. He jumped back away from the bookcase and then watched it like a hawk.

Jason just stared at the book case, the green book still in his hand. “ _What the flipping heck_?”

Damian’s heart pumped in his chest. There was no bloody way this was a secret passage.

Tim crept over to it. “ _Alright I’m …_ that’s a bit odd.”

“ _Yeah,_ ” Jason said, “ _no shit._ ”

Tim’s eyes went wide. “Lads, there’s some kind of passage behind it.”

“ _I told you there was something fishy about him!_ ” Damian said.

Jason dropped the book he was holding and motioned to Tim to pry open the bookcase. They both stood next to it and carefully pried it open with their fingers.

Damian’s heart steadily beat in his chest. It were time for some answers.

They dragged it open, and a stone passage led the entire way down behind it.

The hairs on the back of Damian’s neck stood on edge and his brain felt like it was on fire _._ “ _Where do you reckon it leads?_ ”

The newly revealed passageway immediately lit up with torches of fire on the walls.

The brothers all ducked at once, then slowly rose and looked at the new flames. “ _What the fucck?_ ” Jason said.

Damian breathed and pressed his hands into Jason’s shoulder, watching over him and at the passageway. “ _What … what do you reckon is down there_?”

Jason’s eyes darted between the walls of the narrow passageway and studied the new torches. “Damian … you … you stay here.”

Damian tutted and glared at the torches over Jason’s shoulder. “I’m coming with you.”

Tim was pale. “There’s no holding back our Damian, Jason.”

Jason’s eyes were fixed on the passageway. “I guess not.”

Tim slowly took a step forwards into the passageway and checked both ways so as not to alert anything that might be in there. Then he began creeping down the new passageway with both Jason and Damian lurking behind him.

“ _Stay quiet_ ,” Tim said.

Well, obviously Damian were gonna stay _bloody quiet,_ it weren’t like he were gonna let off some fireworks in this passage or something.

It was cold in the passageway, with the walls lit up by torches that provided the only warmth and light.

Damian instinctively stepped closer to Jason and they crept forwards. He didn’t know how much he actually wanted to know what was behind here now. “ _You sure Wayne ain’t gonna come_?”

“Nah – Wayne won’t …” Jason stepped out of the passageway and his eyes immediately widened.

A bolt of fear rushed through Damian and he furrowed his brows at Jason. What? _What was in there?_ He peeked out into the new room with Tim.

The room was a cave with a waterfall in the back. Large assortments of weapons lined the racks along each side and little bat shaped pieces of metal were stuck to the racks as well.

Damian's hands clenched into fists and his eyes were wide. Oh, _fuck._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you go guys, second and third chapters posted back to back. I really hope you are enjoying it, and if you are do leave a comment. They mean a lot to me so let me know what you're thinking so far and also what you think is going to happen next :)


	3. The Self-Preservation Society

It weren’t just weapons, it were the largest assortment Damian had ever seen. Brass knuckles, batons, revolvers and strange bat-shaped pieces of metal lined all the racks. Torches had lit up above all the racks.

A bolt of pure fear spread through Damian and the hairs on the back of his neck stood completely on edge. His eyes slowly moved across the entire thing. What the _flipping_ heck kind of place was this? Who … _who kept a cave like this in their house_? “ _Jason_?”

Tim and Jason were wide eyed and their eyes were fixed on the entire assortment of weapons.

Damian bit his lip and looked around the entire room. This was crazy … this was _bloody bizarre_ …

In the middle of it all was a giant suit of armour. One that just stood in some gigantic chamber.

Damian’s muscles were trembling and he frowned. It were a gigantic terrifying suit that could mask Wayne’s whole body. What did he need all these weapons for? _Who the bloody hell was he_? “ _Jason, what’s going_ …”

The bookcase door slammed shut behind them.

Another bolt of fear flood through Damian and he yelped. He flipped around and stared at the bookcase door. “ _Okay, err … what do we do now_?”

Jason’s eyes shot back to the bookcase door. “ _We get the fuck out of here._ ”

Damian's heart hammered in his chest and he sprinted back down the passageway alongside his brothers. Jason couldn't have said it any _bloody_ _better_.

Tim and Damian rushed to the other side of the passageway and shoved on the bookcase as hard as they could.

Damian gritted his teeth and leapt into the bookcase. He rammed into it hard and then pushed with all his strength. It were _bloody_ hard, and he grunted through gritted teeth.

The door began moving on the sheer strength of Tim and Damian and creaked forward against its hinges.

Jason came now as well and his hands were pressing hard on the bookcase door. " _Push!_ "

Damian pushed even harder and all his force went into his shoulder and hand to push forwards. His eyes were tightly closed and he was exerting breath through gritted teeth.

The bookcase door swung open and hurtled them all forwards.

Damian crashed into the floor and then bolted up as quickly as he could. _Bloody hell, they weren't being fast enough._ He gripped Tim to his feet. " _Come on_ ," Damian said, "we need to get out of here _right_ _now_."

Tim nodded and sprinted towards the door.

Damian sprinted forwards too behind his brothers.

Tim skidded to a stop and pivoted around. " _The door, Jason. Get the door! He can't know we was in there!_ "

Jason nodded and sprinted back. He jostled first the bookcase door shut and then the outer door. Then he sprinted back towards Tim and Damian.

Tim stood at the door to the attic room and waved Damian and Jason in.

Damian sprinted past Tim and bolted straight up the stairs and into the corner.

Tim followed up and sprinted into the room. Then he keeled over and took a breath.

The loud thud of a door from below crashed closed and Jason also bolted up the stairs. He flipped over the bed and crashed to the floor, rubbing his hair with his hand. " _What the bloody hell?_ "

Damian's heart pounded and his head thrummed something wicked. He collapsed onto one knee and his hand went onto the floor. "What? _What the bloody hell was that?_ "

Tim breathed slowly. "I don't know … I … Lord, I don't know …"

Damian's breathing was coming out in rags.

"He's a madman." Jason's eyes were wide and the dark circles underneath them were deep. "He's a _bloody madman._ "

"He's a weasel who lives in a house this big without any company," Damian said, "he's got too much free time and he brought us as some kind of bloody experiment _I told you Jason._ "

" _He's_ _right_ , _Jason_ ,” Tim said, “maybe the guy just bought us out so he could do some mad bizarre things to us."

Damian shivered and tears welled in his eyes. "I … fuck _I told you this guy was bad news!_ "

Jason sat against the wall and rubbed his face again. "We need to get Dick. Then we need to _get out of here_. I'm sorry … _bloody hell I'm so sorry_ _for not believing you_ …”

Maybe if this were any other occasion, Damian would have made a snide remark. But words weren’t really coming to his lips right now. He guessed that effect came about when you couldn’t properly think.

“At least …” Jason said, a thin glean of sweat on his skin, “at least we can hold him off with this …"

Damian took a deep breath and looked at Jason's hands. He was holding something. " _What - what is that_? _"_

Jason slowly revolved the piece of metal in his hands. "It's … it's a revolver from one of them racks, innit?"

A bolt of adrenaline burst through Damian and his eyes went wide. " _You took a gun?_ "

Tim snapped up and grabbed at Jason's hands then pushed them down. " _What the bloody hell is wrong with you?_ "

Jason was exasperated. "Look if he's a threat, then we have to _deal_ with him, innit?"

" _No,_ " Tim said, "if he's a threat, then we knock him out and we _leave. We aren't killing a weasel in his own house, Jason!_ "

"What, you bloody saw what he's got down there, Tim!" Jason said, "if he really was the guy climbing up the rooftops then we _need_ it."

" _No!"_ Tim snapped, _"no guns._ We’ll kill in defence and that's it."

Jason snarled. "This is _defence._ "

"This is murder," Tim said, "we stick to our principles."

Jason snorted. " _Principles? Did you not see the fucking suit of armour_ …"

"All the more reason to _be good people,_ " Tim said, "we keep to the morally high ground, yeah? We just _leave_ , alright Jason? We just … _leave_."

Jason shook his head and looked at the revolver in his hands.

" _He doesn't know we know,_ " Damian said, "and so we can get out of here like that. He doesn't know we know so that wouldn't be defence, it would be murder. And if the coppers catch us on murder - _and that too murdering a weasel in his own house -_ they would _kill_ us in a heartbeat."

"Alright, alright, _listen_ ," Jason said, "I hear you boys, okay? I _fuck I'm just_ … alright here's what we're gonna do. We go and get Dick, yeah – and I'll put the gun down behind the pillow and forget about it for now - and we casually take him back up the stairs. We let him know what's happening and then we _bust the fuck out of here_. We just … we just sneak straight past Wayne and through the front door, yeah?"

Tim nodded. "Damian, you on that?"

"Yeah, we do that," Damian said.

"Alright," Jason said and placed the revolver behind a pillow. "Alright, let's …"

There was a knock on the door from downstairs.

A bolt of adrenaline burst through Damian and all the hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge. His hands clenched into fists and his eyes zeroed in on the door. He watched it with all his attention, his ears prickling at the thought of Wayne behind it.

"You … " Jason gulped. " _You think it's Wayne?_ "

Tim said nothing and watched the door.

Damian's heart hammered in his chest and his eyes flickered whilst he watched the door. " _Jason …_ "

" _Nobody let him know what we know, okay?_ " Tim said, " _we just … act like everything's alright, yeah?_ "

Damian nodded and stepped closer to Tim. He took a deep breath and watched the door carefully.

" _You …_ " Jason took a deep breath and there was another knock on the door. He visibly flinched and turned to Damian. " _You lads ready, yeah? Just normal._ "

Damian nodded again and took a deep breath.

" _Yeah_!" Jason shouted, " _come up_!"

Damian held his breath and scanned the stairs with every ounce of his attention.

The door opened and Wayne walked up the stairs two at a time.

The very sight of the gigantic man made Damian's breath catch in his throat and he took a step back. His eyes darted to the floor – almost as if not looking at Wayne would make him skip past Damian and talk to the others. _Bloody hell the man was big._ Built like a _bloody_ carriage.

Dick was on the left of him and an elderly man on the right.

Damian's heart was pounding in his chest and he really wanted to get Dick away. If Dick knew about the cave, he wouldn’t be standing so _bloody_ _close_.

"Arh," Dick smiled, "looks like they've come back early from seeing Reggie, innit Mr Wayne?"

Damian kept his eyes on the floor.

Wayne smiled. "So you all have. I brought you boys fresh blankets, it can get chilly up here in the nights and I think you boys can put them to good use."

Damian flinched. Wayne's voice was so bloody deep.

"Errm …" Jason cleared his throat. "Right good that, Mr Wayne. Is there … is everything alright?"

Damian tried to be like Tim and took calmer breaths.

"I just wanted to see if you were all okay,” Wayne said, “I'm - not really sure what's got you all so on edge but how are you finding the house?"

Damian’s eyes were practically glued to the floor.

"Are you boys okay?" Wayne asked, "you're looking very … _pale_."

"Perhaps it's the new conditions they find themselves in, Master Wayne," the elderly man said from next to Wayne. "I imagine it would be most _perturbing_ what with the events of the day."

Wayne turned to them. "On the way over, you boys didn't seem to care. Is that what it is?"

"Arh yeah." Tim tried to smile. "It's just … a bloody huge house, innit? _You got a … nice washroom though._ "

Damian's eyes flickered between Dick and the floor. Dick had to be able to tell something was wrong.

Dick smiled and walked to Damian then put his arm around the younger lad. "Arh yeah it's right dapper, Mr Wayne. Me and the lads love it, innit lads?"

Jason nodded. "Yeah, you … proper sorted us out, Mr Wayne."

Wayne nodded. "Good. _Good._ "

"Mr Wayne," Dick said, "actually we're dead tired now. I reckon we could do with some kip, y'know? But y'know … bloody dapper with this house an' all."

"Call me Bruce," Wayne said, "please, all of you."

Damian felt his cheeks going really red and kept his eyes on the floor. Then he tutted again and shook his head.

"Alfred," Wayne said.

"Yes sir," said the elderly man named Alfred.

"Do we have any food ready? You boys must be hungry."

"Today I believe we have Filet Mignon with potato and cabbage, sir."

Even in Damian’s fear, his hunger began playing up and he clutched his stomach. It’d been at least two days and the lads hadn’t eaten nothing.

"Why don't you boys have a little before you go to …"

"Ah _no_!" Jason said, "nah, we err … we're not so hungry, Mr Wayne."

Wayne was unreadable. "Call me Bruce."

A bolt of fear hit Damian and his eyes shot to the floor. The bloody intensity of the man's voice shook him to his core. He clenched his hands into loose fists and kept his eyes on the floor.

"Look I understand that your thoughts of me are not good right now. I'm sure adults have never been the best to you boys – to any of you boys in fact. It doesn’t surprise me that you don’t trust me. However I am here for you. If something's bugging you, _please_ tell me. I'll do my best to fix it."

None of the boys said anything.

"What is it?" Wayne said, "is it my house?"

"It's your err …" Tim sniffed with a smile. "It's your knuckles, innit, Mr Wayne?"

Wayne's eyes widened for a split-second and then went back to normal.

But Damian caught it.

"What about my knuckles?"

"Your knuckles are errm … calloused sir … like scarred …" Tim said, "like you fight a lot, sir. I mean err, honestly I don’t mean no disrespect sir …"

“ _No no_ you’re right,” Wayne said and studied his knuckles with a smile. "I suppose they are. I work with my hands a lot."

"Oh," Dick said with a smile, "that's real good, Mr Wayne. Me and the lads do a lot of work with our hands. What with chimney sweeping and all. Hope you don't mind me bein' too forward, but what kind of work is it you do?"

A pang of fear ran through Damian. Dick knew what Wayne was – he had to know from how the brothers were acting. That Wayne was a liar. But he didn't know just _how_ bad Wayne was. Maybe that's why he was tickling the beast like that.

"I'm a doctor," Wayne said, "I need to be moving bodies and people."

That didn't make sense to Damian. You didn’t get _scarred knuckles_ from moving bodies.

"Oh," Jason said, the dark circles under his eyes accentuated under furrowed brows.

Wayne turned to Jason with a smile. "Something wrong?"

Damian closed his eyes. _Jason, just don't say anything else …_

"Oh nah, Mr Wayne, nah," Jason said, "no offence sir it just took me off guard that's all. I just never seen no doctor with hands like that."

Damian shook his head under Dick's hand and moved closer to Dick so their sides were touching. Why were these lads _tickling the fucking beast_?!

Wayne chuckled. "Yes I'll admit if I took better care of myself, they wouldn't be so prominent. So you all caught my knuckles being scarred?"

Damian nodded from the floor, and he assumed all the brothers had nodded as well.

Jason spoke now. "Sorry Mr Wayne, don't mind me being too forward neither but what about your back? How comes you hurt that?"

 _No!_ Damian grit his teeth and closed his eyes even together. _Were these lads looking to die_?

Wayne's face was shocked and smiling. "I've never told anyone about my back injury. And I work hard to make sure no-one knows about it. You caught on that too?"

"Yeah Mr Wayne," Tim said with a smile, "did you err … did you hurt that in your doctor's work too?"

Wayne cocked his head. "Climbing during my time in the Alps, actually."

There was no way that were true. Damian didn't know what to believe when Wayne talked anymore.

"You fell off a mountain?" Dick asked, "aww that's _bloody mad_!"

Wayne nodded with a chuckle. "I'll admit, it was a highly unfortunate accident."

Damian didn't really like it, but curiousity was getting the better of him. Like with the door really. He scratched at the back of his neck and frowned again. "And …" he swallowed again and flickered his eyes between Wayne and the floor. "Your physique, sir?"

Wayne cocked his head. "You look hurt … Damian is it?"

Another bolt of adrenaline ran through Damian and he stepped back out of Dick's hand. "You know my name?"

Wayne nodded. "Of course."

Damian said nothing and shot his eyes to the floor. He must have heard it on the way over, but it still _unnerved_ Damian.

"How do you keep your body so tip-top Mr Wayne? With exercise?" Dick asked.

"Absolutely," Wayne said.

"How do you exercise, Mr Wayne?" Jason asked.

"I err … fight, I suppose. Is this an interrogation?"

"Why, Mr Wayne?" Tim asked.

Wayne chuckled. "I suppose it is an interrogation then." He paused for a moment and thought. "It works out your whole body when you fight."

"Have you ever been in a fight?" Dick asked.

"Once or twice," Wayne said.

"Do you think maybe your knuckles are scarred because of that?" Tim asked, "because that would make more sense."

Damian's stomach churned. The lads were making it blatantly clear they could see through Wayne's game, and if Wayne didn't like that, he could do _anything_ to the lads.

Wayne cocked his head. "Alfred, you don't think there's any way …"

"I believe it would be impossible sir," Alfred said, "it would only unlock to your fingerprint."

What? Damian furrowed his brows whilst looking at the floor. Fingerprint?

Wayne smiled again. "Then is everything okay with you boys?"

"Arh yeah yeah, Mr Wayne, we're just curious is all," Dick said, "and we really appreciate you putting us up for the night. Damian does too, even if he'd never admit it … and I hope we'll be able to look after this bedroom for you."

"Absolutely. You boys are incredible. I'm surprised you spotted all that. Look … I don't want to keep you all too long. I'm sure you all – especially Damian – must be very tired from today's events. So take a nap and get acquainted with the house. If you need anything, I will be downstairs. I'm sad to see you aren't wanting dinner. I know it is late, but I did hope you were hungry so I could talk to you. Still … there's always tomorrow."

"Arh yeah, Mr Wayne. We'll be right on it tomorrow," Dick said.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast." Wayne was about to leave and then he turned around. "I hope you boys don't have any intents to kill Pearce."

A bolt of adrenaline burst through Damian and he stepped back again. What? What the bloody hell made Wayne say that?

" _Why_ …" Tim cleared his throat. "Why do you say that, Mr Wayne?"

"I'm sure you know that he lives around here," Wayne said, "but I need you boys to promise me you won't kill him."

Damian gulped. He lived around here? "We … we're not gonna kill him, Mr Wayne."

Wayne said nothing and looked to the pillow where the revolver was hidden.

Damian's eyes widened. Did Wayne know about the revolver? _It weren't possible_ , was it?

"Well, if you say so," Wayne said with a smile, "then I'll leave you boys be."

Damian had been holding his breath. And he slightly let go of his breath as Wayne turned around.

"Before I go though," Wayne said, fishing through his pocket, "I want to give you something, Damian."

Damian's heart jolted in his chest and he stepped back at the mention of something being given. His eyes met Wayne and he frowned deeply. "No I don't want it."

Wayne slowly walked towards Damian with a chuckle. "But you haven't seen it yet."

Damian's heart hammered in his chest and a thin layer of sweat had built on his brow. He stepped back again with his fists clenched and his eyes flickered whilst looking between Wayne and the floor. " _I don't want it, thank you._ "

Bruce sat down in front of him. "Damian …"

The boy's pulse hammered in his throat and his eyes flickered between the floor and Wayne. He didn't know where to look or what to do. And so he just stood there with his hands at his sides.

Dick was pale. "Sir, I really don't think -"

"It's okay," Wayne said, "I promise you I'm not looking to hurt any of you."

Damian kept his eyes on the floor.

"I know you don't like it here, Damian," Wayne said, "I know it scares you being here. But I want you to know that I don't mean you any harm." Then he took out a watch from his pocket and held it in front of the boy.

Damian's eyes went to the watch and his hands were loose fists at his sides. He licked at dry lips and gulped again.

"Here. A keepsake from my father that I wanted to give to you."

Damian's brows furrowed and he studied the watch carefully.

"Take it," Wayne said, " _please_."

Damian said nothing for a few moments and studied the watch. His hands trembled and his eyes darted over it. Then he slowly reached out and placed his palm onto it.

As he did, Wayne stroked his hand through the boy's hair.

The feeling made Damian jump and his muscles tensed - flinching away from Wayne's invading hand but stopping himself. He closed his eyes, and a feeling of warmth enveloped his heart as Bruce stroked his hair. No wait, _what_ _the_ _hell_? Wayne wasn't no friend to Damian – and he sure as shit couldn't buy Damian with gifts! He tutted and moved his head away from Bruce's hand. Then he turned his body away from Bruce as well and tutted again. _What the hell was going on with him_?

Bruce kept his hand in the air for a few seconds, then nodded and stood up and walked towards the stairs. "I do hope you boys stay. You make for a good team, and you complement each other's strengths. I plead you rest well." He walked down the rest of the stairs. "And … I hope whatever is bothering you all. You _do_ eventually find the trust to tell me and not take matters into your own hands." He hesitated for a moment. "I don't mean you any harm, and I want you to fully understand that." Then he nodded again and Alfred followed behind him with a quick nod to the boys.

The door closed behind them.

All the tension flushed out of Damian's body, and he collapsed like jelly onto the floor. Awh, thank fuck. _He was gone._ Damian took a huge breath and hitched as he breathed. _Fuck, it was over._ Tears slowly streamed from his eyes and he closed his eyes with a tut.

Jason leaned against the wall and took a deep breath, and Tim stepped back - pale as a sheet.

"What the bloody hell was that about?" Dick asked.

Damian took deeper breaths and sniffed from the floor. His hands were on his hair.

Dick sat down next to Damian and brushed his hand through the lad's hair.

Damian's cheeks were wet and he took a deep gulp.

Dick looked to the others. "Look somebody _bloody talk to me._ Don't leave me in the dark here, yeah?"

Jason turned around and faced Dick. "He's a monster, Dick. He's …"

Dick looked to Tim. "What? Tim … what's going on?"

Tim shook his head. "Dick, he's a … he's a _madman._ "

"Alright, don't worry Damian, it's over now," Dick said and stroked his hand through Damian's hair. "What do you …"

"Weapons," Jason said, "weapons and a cave full of bat things and shit. He's … I've never _bloody_ seen anything like it."

Dick furrowed his brows. "What? Like …"

"Like ' _we can't stay here any longer_ ', Dick," Tim said, " _or ever again._ "

Dick bit on his bottom lip and shivered briefly.

Damian felt it, the shiver of his older brother through Dick's hand on his hair.

"What? What do you mean, like … we have to leave?" Dick asked.

"We can't stay here," Jason said, "Dick, we need to leave _now._ "

"Ah," Dick walked away from Damian and stood on the wall, "it was _right nice here too._ "

None of the boys said anything for a while.

Damian shivered and looked to Dick with a sniff. If it weren't for Damian's own curiosity, they wouldn't have known about the cave until it was too late. "What do we do, Dick?"

Dick looked to all of the brothers and swallowed. "Err …"

"Time to step up, Dick," Jason said, "we need you right now."

"Right, I err …" Dick chuckled with that charming smile. "I guess I'm just reeling, lads err …"

Damian sniffed and watched the door with a shiver. " _What do we do_?"

Dick nodded. "Alright, err … what about the window? Can we get out like that?"

Tim shook his head. "These are rich man houses. Walls are smooth brick. We would just drop without being able to clutch onto anything. It's too much of a risk."

Dick shook his head. "Then we go out the front. There's four of us, there's one of him."

"And his butler," Tim said.

" _And his butler._ " Dick nodded. "Still, we outnumber them and I doubt the butler'll be a threat. So we just leave through the front door and out onto the streets. If he asks, we'll just say … we're going for a stroll."

Jason shook his head. "What? At past midnight?"

Dick's eyes shot to the floor. "You're right. Alright, we'll … we'll wait until he goes to sleep and stay on alert til he does, yeah?"

"Alright," Jason said, "good plan. Then we just walk out, yeah?"

Dick nodded. "We just walk out."

Damian shook his head from the floor. "He knew about the revolver."

All eyes shot to Damian.

"What?" Jason said.

Damian sniffed and moved his hands from teary eyes. "He knew about the revolver. He looked at it. He thinks we want to use it to kill Pearce."

"That's why he were going on about Pearce so much," Tim said, "and that's why he thought we were scared. _Shit._ "

Jason was thoroughly pale now. " _What the hell is this gent?_ How did he know that?"

Dick shook his head. "I don't know but we're gonna wait, okay? We wait until he goes to sleep and then we rabbit it out of here, yeah?"

All the boys nodded.

"Why didn't he take the revolver if he knew about it then?" Dick asked.

"Security," Tim said, "at least that's what I reckon. He wants us to feel secure in his house, innit? Lads, it were obvious something was wrong between us and he could see it. The fact that he chose not to push on it is a blessing for us. It's a _bloody_ _blessing_."

"So what's his game?" Jason said.

"I don't know," Dick said, " _but we're not bloody staying to find out._ "

ooooo

They must have waited for at least an hour, with all four of them huddled onto the window cushions. Dick sat in the middle with Tim leaning his back on Dick's shoulder on one side and Damian with his head in Dick's lap from the other side. Jason sat on the other side of the window cushion with the revolver in his hand. He continuously opened the revolver and span the cartridge then closed it again. Dick's hand unconsciously ran through Damian's hair.

It gave the little lad a sense of safety, both the revolver and Dick's hand, and he studied the pocket watch in his hands. It was simple, ornate … why did Wayne give him this? It had to be as a gift to try and stop him from going after Pearce, but still Damian couldn't understand what it were for.

With Jason's revolver in hand, the lads felt safer than without it. It wouldn't be so bad if Wayne tried to come in now. And a revolver could stop any man dead in their tracks, so Damian had relaxed a little more into the room. _Not by much,_ but a little more. And it hadn't gone unnoticed by Damian that Wayne's secret door opened when he pressed it. And what did Wayne say … something about a fingerprint?

Dick sniffed and looked at them. "Do you reckon he's asleep?"

Jason shrugged. "He might be."

"We should have taken that food, y'know," Tim said with a smile, "I know he's a madman an' all but I'm bloody hungry."

Damian chuckled even though his stomach ached in hunger at the mention of food. "Really? Food from a loon?"

"Well," Tim said with another smile, "he did have a butler who looked like he made some dapper food."

"We'll get some food from Reggie," Dick said and continued absent-mindedly running his hand through Damian's hair.

Damian looked at Dick. "Where do you reckon Reggie is?"

Tim chuckled. "Who knows? He probably don't even know himself."

Jason chuckled. "He's just walking circles around Lace Market, innit."

"Yeah, I bet he just doing laps around like ' _I'm sure I been here before_ '."

All the lads chuckled at this. Damian closed the watch and studied the strange markings on the outside.

"Reggie's a good lad, y'know," Dick said.

"Yeah," Tim said, "he is."

"We'll go see him now," Jason said, "eh Damian. What do you want to do about Pearce?"

Damian shrugged on Dick's thigh. "We'll deal with that later on. Right now, let's just work out how we get out of here."

"What did he say about that fingerprint?" Jason asked.

"Yeah that struck me too, Dick," Tim said, "what do you reckon that were about?"

"I think he were talking about _that door,_ " Damian said.

"The bookcase one?" Tim said, " _bloody hell the bookcase one._ " He shivered at the thought.

Damian nodded from Dick's lap. "That's all I can think he were talking about."

Jason shrugged. "Maybe that's why he didn't follow it up. He thinks there's no way we could open it."

Tim looked at Damian. "But our Damian did."

Dick looked at Damian now.

Damian felt another flush creep through his cheeks and he shrugged. "Maybe it were luck."

Dick nodded and stroked his hand through Damian's hair again. "Yeah, maybe it was."

There was a long silence between them.

Dick sniffed. "You boys ready, yeah?"

Damian nodded and clenched his fists. He sat up and put the watch into his pocket. "I'm ready."

"You, Tim?" Dick asked.

Tim turned and nodded. " _Nah_. I’m not at all ready. But let’s do it anyway."

Jason nodded too. "Yer, this is a _bloody_ mistake but let's do it."

"Alright," Dick said and took a deep breath, "then let's go."

Damian nodded, then all the boys nodded. "Aye aye."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for anyone reading this chapter again. Decided to do it in two parts. Don't forget to leave your comments for speedy updates!!


	4. The Way of the Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still no word from Kleine_aster guys :(  
> I'm hoping she just hasn't seen this story in her gifts as opposed to outright just disregarding it. I'm going to hold out though!

“He han’t moved,” Tim said.

Damian peered over from the wooden rafter he was perched on.

Sure enough, Wayne was still asleep on a chair right next to the exit door. The way he was sat made it look like he was awake.

Jason blew hushed bubbles into the sky from the rafter he was on. “This is taking the piss.”

It really was. As soon as the lads saw Wayne, the four brothers had scrambled up the walls and into the rafters above, only to realise the gigantic man was asleep – and that had pissed Damian right off. And now around twenty minutes later when Wayne was still in front of the door asleep, Damian was thoroughly pissed off. “Let’s just kill him, lads.”

All the brothers looked at him.

“What?” Damian said, “it’s not like I got a problem murdering Wayne.”

“Yeah you actually did,” Tim said, “back when we was in the attic bedroom.”

Damian tutted. “I had a problem with leaving a trail for the coppers. I’m not right keen with leaving a weasel dead in his house. But I got no problem murdering Wayne _._ ”

Jason slapped him on the back of his head. “My thoughts all along.”

Damian tutted. “Touch me again and _I’ll rip your fingers off, Todd._ ”

Jason bit his bottom lip, and slowly reached out shaky fingers towards Damian’s cheek. Damian glared death at him as his fingers approached.

”We can’t kill Wayne,” Tim said and Jason and Damian looked at him on the opposite rafter. “No murder. We can’t be like Pearce _or_ Wayne.”

“ _Why_?” Jason asked.

Dick was sitting with his legs crossed on the rafter and he was studying Wayne carefully. “Because we have to stick by codes if we’re gonna get out of this. We have to be _good people_.”

Damian tutted. “Right bollocks, that is. I reckon anyone who hides a gigantic cave under their house _deserves_ to die.”

“That’s not really saying much,” Tim said, “you reckon everything deserves to die.”

“Well, everything should die then.”

Jason chuckled quietly and then scooped Damian’s neck into his arm and planted a sloppy kiss on Damian’s cheek. Immediately, Damian swatted at Jason’s face and then rubbed his wet cheek. “ _Urh gross, you - piss off!_ ”

“Steady lads,” Dick said quietly and his eyes were thoughtful and concentrated on Wayne. “Revolver or no revolver - Wayne’s still a threat.”

Damian tutted and rubbed his still wet cheek. “Wayne don’t even look like a threat asleep.”

“I know,” Tim said, “he looks more like a kitten. Albeit.” Tim looked directly into Damian’s eyes. “A seven foot kitten that’s built like a carriage and makes me want to cry myself to sleep every time I look at him.”

Damian’s eyes went back to Wayne.

“Soo _,_ ” Jason said, “let’s just take him and march right on through.”

“No _,_ ” Tim said again, “no murdering _-_ ”

“ _I don’t mean murder fucking hell,_ ” Jason said with an eye roll, “we’ll just beat him down _Jesus._ ”

“ _Beat him down_?” Dick looked to Jason from his cross-legged position. “You can’t even stand properly, _you muppet_. Look at your hands … when was the last time you ate?”

Jason shoved trembling hands behind his back. “What does that matter?”

“Jason, we’re all feeling the same way,” Dick said, “ _hungry_ and _tired._ And if – for any reason - he takes that revolver from us, then we’re _dead_.”

Jason rolled some of the tack from the rafter into a ball and flicked it at Dick’s head. “He won’t take the revolver.”

The tack bounced off Dick’s head and his eyes stayed on Wayne. “He might.”

Damian smirked and then did the same, rolling some tack between his fingers and flicking it at Dick’s head.

Again, it flicked off Dick’s head. “Knock it off, I’m trying to think.”

Jason rolled some more tack and lobbed it into Dick’s head. “You’re thinking is taking too long.”

Dick carried on rubbing his lips, his eyes focused on Wayne. “I reckon if we go through the front door, he’ll kill us.” Dick scratched his hair. “ _So not through the front door …_ maybe from a window?”

“ _I got an idea._ ” Jason sat up properly and all the brothers looked at him. “So we go back into that mad cave he got down there, alright? We go down and we go to that carriage and take his wheels because _fuck him,_ y’know? Then we do an eagle dive down the waterfall into the hay carriage at the bottom …”

“It wouldn’t work,” Dick said quickly, “I don’t reckon there’s anyway out from there.”

Jason huffed. “Yeah I was just joking, I were just trying to lighten the mood.”

Damian tutted. “Well stop. _You_ _suck_ _at_ _it_.”

Jason shook his head. “What happened to you, Dick? You always used to be so lively.”

That seemed to snap Dick out of his trance and he looked at Jason thoughtfully. “Huh?”

Tim was peeling off bits of tack from the rafter he was on. “Someone’s gotta be the responsible one, Jason.”

Dick smiled slightly and then he carried on watching Wayne. “Believe me when I say I don’t want to be. I don’t want to be no bloody responsible one … or no bloody leader – honest. But you lads …” Dick smiled that charming smile. “ _You’ve made me the bloody leader_ , innit? And, I need to keep you lot safe. And sometimes that means making them hard decisions.”

“Well you’re good at it,” Damian said, “the leader thing.”

Tim nodded too. “We’re alive so far.”

Dick’s cheeks went slightly red and he smiled again. “What? D’ya reckon?”

Jason nodded too. “I basically trust your choice over mine.”

Dick smiled that charming smile and turned away from them. “Whatever lads, I’m alright I guess …” His face suddenly became deathly serious and his body straightened. “ _Wayne’s moving._ ”

A bolt of adrenaline ripped through Damian and he instinctively launched up onto the rafter he was on to be able to make a quick escape. His eyes burned into Dick and studied his face. “ _What_?”

Dick’s shoulder blades were tensed and he was watching the stairs. Tim had bolted up properly too and Jason’s revolver was clutched in his fingers with a vice-like grip.

Damian’s heart was now beating steady and hard, and he watched the stairs with slow, deep, closed-mouth breaths.

Wayne marched up the steps two at a time, each step purposeful and paced. He was wearing a patterned waistcoat and black bottoms.

Damian’s clutch on the rafter tightened. He looked even bigger than Damian remembered him. And the rawness of his physique were a sharp contrast to the wealthy clothes he wore.

He yawned into the back of his hand and walked to a portrait on the wall – oblivious of the four boys above him. It was of two parents and a child painted together.

Damian licked at dried lips. Wayne was _right_ underneath them now.

The man studied the portrait for a few seconds, and then the door on the other side of the corridor creaked opened. Damian watched the door now as the butler sauntered out of the open door with a yawn and an illuminated lantern in his hand. He didn’t even walk a few steps before he saw Wayne’s figure in the dark. “Oh goodness!”

Damian jolted on the rafter and gritted his teeth.

The butler clutched the lantern next to Wayne’s cheek. “Master Wayne?”

“Alfred,” Wayne smiled a tired smile. “Did I scare you?”

Well if ‘ _Alfred_ ’ weren’t scared by that, it definitely scared _the seven shades of shit_ out of Damian.

“Oh not unlike normal Master Wayne,” the butler said, “you do appear to have a penchant for lurking within dark spaces and predatorily scaring unsuspecting people.”

Wayne chuckled and Damian crouched lower. His voice was so different to the butler’s. It was deep and American, and it contrastly sharply with Alfred’s own accent. “Old habits die hard, I suppose,” Wayne said.

“Indeed they do.” Alfred held his lantern up to the portrait that Wayne was looking at. “Is this a favourite of yours, Master Wayne?”

Wayne studied the portrait. “It reminded me of the boys.”

“Oh? Why so, sir?”

Wayne shrugged and didn’t take his eyes off the portrait. “They’re cut from the same cloth, Alfred.”

Damian narrowed his eyes. _What_? Same cloth?

Alfred held his lantern up to the picture. “Yes quite right, quite right. This was also a favourite of your father’s too. If I recall, he paid a fair shilling to have you and your parents painted in this style.”

Was that Wayne in the picture – the lad? Damian cocked his head. He was so small then ... so _human._ And the whole picture was surrounded by the fanciest golden, floral patterned frame that Damian had ever seen. Damian weren’t right good at reading people, but he reckoned Wayne must _treasure_ this picture.

“What do you think he would say if he saw me now?” Wayne asked, his eyes not leaving the picture.

“I’m sure he would see the best of you, Master Wayne,” Alfred said, “in fact of this I have no doubt.”

Wayne shook his head slowly. “I’m - not being fast enough. I need to double back, I need to re-evaluate my progress. Changing London is taking too long.”

Damian furrowed his brows. _Changing London_?

“Gotham took long too,” Alfred said, “and just like Gotham, you _can_ change London.”

Damian’s heart spiked and he knew the other brothers would have caught that too. _Gotham._ Wayne had spent some time in Gotham. Back in America, Damian and the lads lived in Gotham until a few years back. That meant Wayne … was Wayne like them? A street urchin? Is that what he meant by ‘ _cut from the same cloth_ ’?

And suddenly Tim’s eyes lit up and he bit down hard on his fist. The boy went very pale. He mouthed something with blank eyes.

The hairs raised on Damian’s wrists. What the hell were eating him? And what were he mouthing? Was that _bad?_ Or was he saying _bat?_ In all honesty though, he could have said anything. Dick didn’t seem to understand neither - his brows furrowed in confusion at Tim. Well at least Damian weren’t alone.

“No, it’s okay,” Wayne said, “I’ll go back downstairs. You get some rest Alfred, I have no doubt these boys will be a handful tomorrow and I need you to be alert and ready for them.” Wayne smiled. “Have you ever heard anything like it? Street children that talk like they’re from here but with an American accent. I actually recognise the oldest one - Dick.”

Dick’s brows furrowed at this, and Damian bit his lip and watched Wayne again whilst Tim’s mouth was agape from next to them - his eyes darting left and right as if his brain was in motion.

What the hell was Tim’s problem? Why was Damian’s stomach churning at Tim’s reaction?

“Do you, Master Wayne?” The butler continued, “all the better to bond with him.”

Wayne smiled. “You should have seen him back in the circus, Alfred. He could do double - even triple - soumersalts.” Wayne chuckled at this. “The Flying Grayson’s really do live on with his - “ Wayne stopped mid-sentence and his face went deathly straight. He looked emotionlessly at the wall next to Alfred.

Damian stilled his entire body. Alright, that weren’t good.

Wayne paced towards Alfred and then straight past him.

Damian’s pulse pounded against his temple and he clutched onto the rafter until his knuckles were pale white and he studied Wayne hard. The man had broken off, did he … _could he know they were up here?_ The thought made Damian bite his bottom lip until it went white. _Naa, there were no way._

“Master Bruce?” Alfred said.

Wayne raised a hand to indicate everything was okay and rasped his fingertips over the wallpaper that Damian had climbed up. “Where are the boys?”

Damian’s breath caught in his throat and he clenched the rafter underneath him. No there was no way Wayne could know that they were here. _There was no way he was only human … he had to be only human …_

“Err in their room sir, from what I am aware,” Alfred said.

Wayne’s eyes didn’t leave the wallpaper and he smoothed his fingertips over it. Jason was stiff as a board and Tim was visibly shaking from whatever revelation he had made earlier.

Damian’s heart beat hard against his ribs and he swallowed. Tim’s reaction were really unnerving Damian now …

“Sir?” the butler said.

“You look tired, Alfred. You should rest.”

“Tired, sir?”

Wayne smiled at his butler. “I’m sure these boys will be a real handful for us in the morning.”

“Oh err … very well sir,” Alfred said, “I plead you rest well too.”

Wayne nodded as Alfred walked past him. “Oh, and Alfred?”

“Yes sir?”

“Whatever happens now, stay in your room. This could get dangerous.”

Damian’s heart leapt to his throat and his breathing suddenly burned out of his lungs. No there was no way. His eyes darted between his brothers, who all had equally pale looking faces. Jason had the revolver gripped into white knuckles and his eyes were glued to Wayne.

Alfred didn’t need anymore prompting – he nodded and immediately went to his room and closed the door behind him.

Damian watched Wayne with all the focus of an eagle.

Wayne unbuttoned his cufflinks and rolled up his sleeves.

Damian’s muscles were trembling and he held his breaths in his lungs so hard it hurt. Alright, maybe … maybe Wayne din’t know they were there. Maybe Damian and the lads could just wait it out … wait until the morn-

In one motion, Wayne’s heavy body bounded between the walls and caught on directly next to Jason in the rafters, pounding his huge body onto the rafter.

A pang of pure fear surged through Damian and he instinctively threw himself off the rafters and crashed onto the floor. _No no no no, shit!_ He scrambled onto his feet and snapped his hands up. How?! How on earth - _what the fuck was he?!_

Wayne snatched at Jason’s revolver and Jason barrelled himself off the side and just out of Wayne’s grip – keeping the revolver clutched to his chest.

Damian scrambled to his feet and whipped his hands up. There was no way … _there was no way Wayne could catch them there._

Dick and Tim bashed down to the floor and scrambled towards Jason and Damian. The four boys clambered up next to each other with Jason out in front. His revolver was held out at Wayne. Damian was trembling and his fists shot up into a fighting stance.

“ _What the fuck are you, Wayne_?” Jason asked.

Wayne put his hands up. “I know how that just looked.”

Damian could hear the heavy breaths that shook Dick and Tim’s bodies and he clenched his fists tighter. He needed to think. He needed to _come up with something._

“I don’t want to hurt any of you,” Wayne said in that monotonous voice, “I promise. But I need you to give me the revolver before you hurt someone.”

Tim’s breaths were coming out in rags and there was a sheen of sweat on his face. “You …” His face was deathly pale. “ _You’re the Batman._ ”

Wayne’s eyes went to Tim. His expression was unreadable.

Damian’s pulse seized in his throat and his fingers squeezed into tight fists. No there were no way. The Batman was a myth, there was no way that Wayne was the Batman _no._ That was just a story the orphans told each other. He dug his nails into his palms until they went white. “ _No ..._ ”

Dick’s eyes were wide. “Wha – _nah ... nah …_ ”

Jason’s revolver was aiming dead between Wayne’s eyes and his fingers trembled violently. “Alright I don’t know what the fuck you are, but you _need_ to stay back. Right now.”

Wayne began walking towards them. “ _Look I know …_ ”

“No you _stay right there!_ ” Jason said and almost fell backwards into his brothers, his hand frantically shaking. “ _Don’t move, Wayne don’t … just don’t fucking move, alright!_ ” Jason was close to tears. “ _Stay there._ ”

Damian could feel the sweat seep down from his hairline and he was crouched as low as he possibly could be, as if being tiny next to his brothers would somehow help. It all made sense now … Wayne knowing about the revolver, the gigantic cave, the weapons, how he knew they were on the rafters … he was the Batman _he was the fucking Batman_. Damian was trying really hard to hold back tears now too.

Dick swallowed and stood slowly. His hands were up as if he were trying to calm a lion. “ _Look we didn’t mean no trouble, please … we’re gonna walk out of the door, just don’t ... don’t stop us, please._ ”

Wayne’s eyes were genuinely distraught. “I’m sorry. Really boys I am. But I can’t let you leave with that gun.”

Damian’s heart spiked again and he could feel his weight on the balls of his feet, as if the rest of his body was weightless.

“No,” Dick said, also close to tears and clutching Damian behind his back, “ _no no please just let us go, we’re sorry, okay?_ We didn’t … we didn’t know _sorry._ ”

Wayne frowned. “You _can_ leave. But not with that gun. It’s too dangerous and you’ll hurt someone. Give me the gun and you can leave.”

“ _What - let you have it?_ ” Jason asked with an incredulous look. “ _No fucking chance._ ”

Damian’s heart pounded in his chest and his eyes frantically scanned the exit door at the bottom of the stairs. It wasn’t that far – around twelve or thirteen paces away from the lads. They _had_ to be able to make that if Wayne took another step.

Wayne eyes were fixed on Jason. “Okay okay … look at me, boys. You’re scared – I understand. I’m sorry. You can leave.” Wayne nodded slowly and smiled. “Look at my eyes - it’s okay, alright? _It’s okay._ Everything’s okay - you can all leave and I won’t come after you. Here let me …” Wayne took two slow steps back. “Just put the revolver down and you can leave. I’ll stay here, I promise.”

Damian was shaking and he clasped onto Dick until his nails dug into Dick’s arms.

Jason nodded frantically and swallowed. “Alright … _stay there …_ ” He started creeping backwards and Dick and Tim took sharp steps backwards with him – as if any sudden movements might set off the gigantic man.

Damian’s eyes shifted to the exit and he carefully paced. His eyes darted between Wayne’s gigantic figure and scanning the exit door up and down.

“No, you boys haven’t dropped …” Wayne dropped his hands and stepped towards Jason with an outstretched hand. “The revo -”

Jason yelped in panic and squeezed the trigger – firing off a shot.

The sound boomed in Damian’s ears and a bolt of adrenaline burst through him. It was an explosive scream in his skull that vibrated down his whole body and he instinctively barrelled down into a crouch. _What the fuck?_

Wayne had somehow stepped around the bullet and grasped at Jason’s hand to snatch the revolver from him.

Damian’s eyes were wide. Nah, Jason hadn’t killed Wayne. Wayne just _dodged a bullet._

Dick athletically smashed Wayne off the revolver with his foot and then began chasing him backwards into the corridor on a panicked attack. Wayne was effortlessly blocking all of Dick’s circus-like flips and then Tim barrelled off the wall and into Wayne as well. It pushed Wayne back and suddenly both Tim and Dick were barraging Wayne from both sides - Dick with aerobic precision and Tim with balanced jabs and kicks.

Damian’s heart slammed in his ears and his eyes darted to Jason. There weren’t no choice, they couldn’t follow Dick’s orders no more. Jason had to shoot Wayne if he were gonna stop anything from happening to the lads. Jason were a crack-shot with that thing if ever there was one. It weren’t ideal – but … Dick would understand that they had to shoot Wayne, _right_? “ _Jason! Do it!_ ”

Jason’s hand was shaking and his revolver was pointed at Wayne as the beast of a man fluidly dodged backwards away from Dick and Tim. “ _I’m trying, lad – I need a clear shot!_ ”

Wayne was successfully blocking both Dick and Tim off with ease and then he used an open-palm first to shove Dick in the side of his kneecap, then his stomach, then his shoulder causing Dick to yelp aloud and fall into Wayne.

A pang of fear stabbed through Damian. “ _JASON DO IT._ ”

Jason acknowledged this in split-seconds and panickingly took off a shot.

The sound boomed in Damian’s ears again and he instinctively leapt away from the revolver and bashed into the wall.

Wayne crashed himself and Dick and Tim into the wall – pushing them out of the way of the bullet.

Jason grit his teeth and his eyes were wide. His fingers gripped into his own hair with his free hand. “ _Shit Damian I nearly hit Dick!_ ”

A bolt of adrenaline flood through Damian and he tutted. He’d have to do something himself. Oh _fuck!_ What the fuck was he looking to do right now he didn’t even know … he immediately began sprinting towards Wayne - fluid and determined.

Wayne held Dick’s limp body. A thin glean of sweat covered Dick’s face and his breathing was slow and heavy – his face contorted.

A bolt of fear rushed through Damian and he instinctively sprinted towards Dick.

Tim grabbed Wayne from behind and wrestled him off Dick. Wayne’s face was still straight and then Tim rammed his knee into Wayne’s spine. It was the first time in the entire confrontation Wayne’s face contorted in pain and he grunted.

Damian dextrously slid past Wayne and Tim’s fighting bodies and scrambled over to Dick. He clutched Dick’s face and slapped it a couple of times. “ _Stay with me, Dick!_ ”

Wayne threw Tim over himself and Tim scrambled to his feet whilst Wayne clutched his back.

Now Tim was face to face with the gigantic man. “Oh … _h-hello …_ ” Tim smiled crookedly even as his muscles trembled and his face was pale. “ _P-parley_?”

Wayne pinched two fingers and a thumb between Tim’s shoulder and Tim’s eyes went wide. “ _I’m doing this so you don’t get hurt,_ ” Wayne said.

Tim’s eyes were wide. “ _N-no wait …_ ” Wayne dug his fingers into the flesh above Tim’s shoulder blade. Tim yelped and then crashed into Wayne, trying to move but fumbling, as if his body wasn’t doing it what it was telling it to. Wayne lowered his body to the floor carefully.

Damian watched Wayne with wide eyes and then his eyes snapped first to Tim’s body and then to Jason. Jason was still clutching the revolver and his brows were furrowed and his face was pale. _What was that retard doing_? Why wasn’t he shooting Wayne? He clutched Dick again and slapped his face. “ _Dick, what do I do?_ ”

Tim tried scrambling to his feet, only to crash to the floor again with a whine.

Damian’s hands were trembling as if an earthquake had wracked his body and his forehead _seeped_ sweat. Whatever Wayne had just done had drained all the energy out of Tim and Dick. Dick’s eyes were groggy and fazed. Damian tried heaving Dick up, but he was at least twice as big as Damian. “ _STAND UP!_ ”

Wayne grabbed the revolver from Jason’s hand and Jason also tumbled backwards onto the floor. Wayne then grasped the barrel, sliding it off and then emptying all the bullets onto the floor. Then he dropped the revolver to the floor.

Jason’s eyes darted between Wayne’s own from the floor. “ _What are you?_ ”

Wayne didn’t move. “Your brothers aren’t hurt. I just hit their pressure points. They’ll be drained until they rest.”

Damian heaved Dick to his feet with a grunt, using the wall to support him. “ _I’m okay, Damian. ‘m .... Jason … watch out …_ ”

Damian’s eyes snapped to Jason.

Jason’s eyes darted between Wayne’s own. “So, this … this how it is, yeah? You just take ‘em down and expect me to trust you now?”

Wayne crouched down in front of him, watching him on the floor. “I promise you – if you want – you can take your brothers and go right now. But I’d really like you to stay with me at least until I explain all of this to you.”

Jason’s eyes went to Wayne and his hands trembled. “ _I c- I call bullshit_.”

Wayne said nothing, motionless and emotionless.

Jason licked at dry lips and shuffled back whilst still facing Wayne – scooting over the bullets and standing up with clenched fists. “ _How do I know you’re not – not lying, Bruce_?”

Damian’s fists clenched hard. “ _Jason,_ don’t do this.”

From behind them, Tim had tried standing to his feet again and crashed down onto the floor. “ _Jason … careful …_ ”

Jason stepped slightly towards Wayne and calmed Damian and Dick with one open hand - the other still clenched into a fist. “ _You got_ – you have two minutes to explain yourself, _Bruce_. I’m list – _please_ _I’m listening_.”

Wayne’s eyes didn’t leave Jason. “Jason I need you to _drop the bullet before we -_ ”

Jason’s shaky fingers pelted the bullet he had picked up when he stood at Wayne’s eyes with deathly precision.

Damian’s eyes widened again. Wait, Jason might get the upper hand whilst Dick recovered.

Wayne blocked it effortlessly and his eyes snapped to Jason emotionlessly. But it was too late, Jason was already on him with speed – crashing his forehead into Wayne’s own in the most brutal head butt Damian had ever seen and then pummelling Wayne with heavy, violent fists to his face. Wayne was on the defence, scrambling to block but being disorientated by the sheer force behind every punch. Jason grabbed at Wayne and rammed the gigantic man’s head into the wall and then rammed his knee into the man’s head. It disorientated Wayne, and Jason roared and crashed his fist into Wayne again – un-coordinated and violent - _scared_.

Wayne blocked it quickly and then shoved Jason twice in the shoulder. Jason crashed into Wayne’s body with a gasp and Wayne held him, taking a moment to both recover himself and let Jason recover too.

Damian’s heart hammered in his chest and his eyes darted between Wayne and Jason. He’d taken out all three brothers … shit … _shit!_ What was he supposed to do? “ _Dick, please, stand up!_ ”

Wayne carefully placed Jason to the floor. Then he wiped at a bloodied lip and then his gaze came to Damian.

Something snapped in Damian. Something primal and urgent. Suddenly, he was focused – both the sight of Wayne’s gigantic form and his brother’s tired bodies bursting him forwards – springing him into action. He let go of Dick on the wall and then sprang with all the circus grace of Dick towards Wayne, which Wayne quickly blocked with wide eyes.

Damian needed to counter quickly – _adapt_ to Wayne’s tactics even though his pulse pounded in his temple. He immediately changed his style with a balanced roundhouse kick that he’d seen Tim do.

His heel bashed into Wayne’s jaw, and Wayne was thrown off momentarily by this and his eyes widened for another second

He immediately capitalised on the disorientated palm Wayne threw at his shoulder to break downwards with his hands and then clasp onto the back of Wayne’s neck with both hands, ramming Wayne’s chest and face with violent knees courtesy of Jason’s style. Yes, Damian had the upper hand _yes!_ Wayne had a shocked look and he grunted and blocked Damian’s scrambled knees, then he shoved Damian’s shoulder quickly.    

Damian pounced back in anticipation, but it was too late.

Wayne’s palm collided with his shoulder, and a numbness exploded all through him and he collapsed into Wayne with a yelp. And all of a sudden, he was back to all the fear rushing back into his bloodstream. What the fuck?! What the fuck had Wayne done to him?! And how the hell did Damian just do that?! His body wasn’t responding in the way he wanted it to. It weren’t even pain, just _numbness_.

Wayne slowly placed him to the floor. “ _That was incredible, Damian._ ”

Damian’s panicked mind ignored this and tried scrambling away from Wayne and he crashed down onto the floor with a whine. _What the fuck?!_

“ _P - park it, you jammy bastard_.”

Wayne’s eyes turned to Jason, as did Damian’s.

Jason was holding the same revolver from earlier and pointing it at Wayne.

A feeling of elation rose in Damian’s chest. He must have somehow managed to reload the revolver whilst the brothers were fighting. Yes!

“Try that snatch thing again,” Jason said, “ _’m … I’m ready this time._ ”

Wayne’s hands went up again for another time. “Yes you are.” His eyes darted to the remaining bullets on the floor. “You reloaded fast.”

Damian staggered up on boneless legs. He used the wall as a support to stumble towards Jason and try to recollect himself. That shove that Wayne had done had reverberated all round him.

Jason walked towards the rest of their brothers as he panted. “ _We’re gonna walk out_ ,” he said weakly, “ _don’t step forward and don’t … don’t stop us_.” Jason’s eyes were bleary. “ _I’d kill you buh Dick … buh Dick he told me not to. Luck … lucky you._ ”

Nah that weren’t it, Damian knew. It’s cause he nearly hit Dick earlier and he couldn’t bring himself to do that again.

Wayne said nothing.

“ _Let’s get out of here, lads_ ,” Jason said slowly and tiredly, “ _he isn’t gonna try anything now_.”

Dick and Tim struggled to their feet as if only on adrenaline and scrambled to the stairs, using the wall as a support to try not to fall down the stairs. They practically crashed down the stairs anyway in their rush to get away.

Damian didn’t feel quite as numb anymore - and stumbled towards the stairs. He was gonna be _so_ bloody happy when they left Wayne’s house.

But Jason didn’t move.

Damian’s eyes shot back. “ _Jason, let’s go_.”

Jason’s eyes were fixed on Wayne.

Damian tutted. “ _Jason._ ”

Wayne’s hands were still up and his face betrayed no expression. “I thought Dick told you not to shoot me.”

Dick _had_ told him that. Damian tugged on his brother. “ _Come on, let’s fucking go!_ ”

Jason still kept his gun aimed at Wayne. “ _You let me reload the gun._ ”

Wayne said nothing.

“ _Why?_ ” Jason’s eyes were focused. “ _Why did you let me?_ ”

Wayne didn’t move. “Just promise me you won’t use it on anyone.”

Jason cocked the revolver. “ _Only on you._ ”

Damian’s heart spiked. Oh my God _what was this retard doing?_ “ _Jason_ …”

Wayne didn’t move. “You’d be disobeying Dick.”

Jason’s eyes were focused. “ _Dick ain’t here_. Plus he’s gonna give me the shit for trying to shoot you earlier anyway. What’s one more bullet gonna do?”

A pang of fear rushed through Damian and he snatched at the revolver and pushed it down. Jason weren’t gonna fucking kill Wayne and get the rope right now. “ _We need to go now_ , _THINK this through, you retard._ ”

Wayne said nothing and his hands were still raised.

Jason clenched the revolver and bared his teeth.

Damian shoved Jason’s revolver down. “ _I won’t let you get the rope for this, you retard! This isn’t you!_ ”

Jason thought for a few seconds. “Damian, the … his punishment has to fit his crime.”

“His crime of what - _letting_ _us_ _go_?”

Jason’s eyes darted between Wayne’s own and then he lowered the revolver with a defeated look – as if he had just been knocked out of a trance. “Right … yeah … let’s errm … let’s beat it, Damian. Don’t follow us, yeah Wayne?”

“This is why I didn’t want you to take it,” Wayne said, “because you _will_ use it, Jason.”

Jason said nothing and Damian’s eyes were glued to him.

Then he nodded to Damian and they rushed down the stairs with Damian sprinting down besides him. They pounced over the last few stairs and then scrambled through the front door, bashing out into the piercing night air.

The other brothers were at the other side of the street underneath a pitiful street lamp and Damian sprinted towards them - only slightly falling over on his way there.

The thick smog that shrouded the empty street would make for good cover; the only source of light the singular street lamp. They didn’t look back for even a second. They blazed through the empty rich streets with a speed that would never have let anyone know just how tired they really were, barrelling and rocketing over cobbled roads and through the alleyways then springing between the walls to get as far away from Wayne as humanly possible. And when they were at a safe distance away, Dick suddenly started clambering up – and then all four of the boys followed and were clambering to the top of the building in front of them. They moved swiftly, even through the hunger and mind-numbing tiredness.

Damian just about reached the top, struggling with every step against what was the piercing cold of the London night air. He threw himself over the top and onto the hard concrete of the rooftop, then he boosted onto his feet and scanned the streets below. His eyes darted around for Wayne like a machine.

Dick and the others were standing in a line next to him, watching over the side where Damian was looking. Each of the brothers were breathing heavily, their chests expanding and falling slowly.

“ _You reckon he’s gone_?” Dick said between heavy pants.

Damian said nothing and continued scanning the street - narrowing his eyes to see through the smog and the dark of the night. His breaths were coming out controlled - even though they were still much faster than normal.

“ _He’s gone,_ ” Tim said, “he let Jason reload that revolver, _he’s not gonna follow us._ ”

“Huh?” Damian said, “how do you reckon that?”

Dick looked at Tim too, and Tim shrugged. “I knew Jason were going for the revolver while you were rough-housing with Wayne, Damian. If I saw that - then I know for definite Wayne saw that too. _He let us go._ ”

Damian’s eyes scanned the street one last time.

“ _I’m tired_ ,” Dick said with a huff and then promptly crashed into the concrete of the rooftop.

At these words, Damian’s eyes flickered and then he couldn’t stop himself any longer and he fell down like a ton of bricks onto the concrete of the rooftop. His breathing was coming out in deep, hitched breaths. He slumped on his side with his hand under his cheek - his eyes closed. He couldn’t even bring himself to care anymore - whatever Wayne had done with that shove had taken it _right_ out of him.

Dick was on his side face-to-face with Damian. His breath was coming out in gasps and his eyes were closed. There was a layer of sweat entirely covering olive skin. “ _He’s the Batman_.”

Tim’s breathing was deep and he crashed on the other side of Damian on his back. His chest heaving up and down from the floor. He was also covered in a thin layer of sweat. “ _Well, this were a productive night._ ”

The need to sleep festered behind Damian’s eyes, and a warmth covered his cheek from his hand and Dick’s body in front of him even though the cold night air hovered through the hairs on their skin.

Dick looked like he was asleep. “ _Back on the streets again, eh lads?_ ”

Tim chuckled with a cough and breathed deep. “Can’t say I missed them, I’ll be honest.”

Damian was drifting out against the sounds of the heavy breathing of all four of them.

Jason was on his side next to Tim so their hair was touching and he chuckled too. “It’s not - not so bad out here.”

Damian shook his head and tutted even in his tiredness. _Lie._

Dick chuckled with closed eyes, lighting up his charming smile and then bit his lip. “I thought - I really thought Wayne were our ticket out, y’know lads?” He chuckled tiredly again. “Figured I’d be able to practice my flips in the bedroom without worrying about having to freeze to death … or going hungry for long … or …” He couldn’t finish, his face flushing into a deep frown.

None of the boys said anything to that for a long while. Damian didn’t either - the words burning into his brain with a frown. Maybe this were how they were destined to live their lives. Struggling for _fucking_ specks of bread and finding new ways to not freeze to death every night. He heaved a breath. “ _We’ll get through this. Just like we did before_.”

Dick nodded and smiled that charming smile. “We’ll just … we’ll just have to pick some more pockets tomorrow.”

“Gonna be hard when we’re running so long without food,” Tim said.

“And sleep,” Jason said, “Tim anyone ever told you you’re a really good pillow?”

Tim shook his head. “Nah never been called a good pillow. I have been called an asshole though - if that counts for anything.”

Damian chuckled weakly as did Dick and Jason and then he closed his eyes. There was another long silence between the boys. An emptiness that filled the air. Damian clutched the cold concrete underneath him that felt like jagged daggers against his side and frowned. It were funny because earlier he’d felt so adamant to get out of Wayne’s house, and now he was out he felt even worse than when he were in it.

“We’ll manage,” Dick said with a deep breath as if he could sense the change in atmosphere. “We always do.” His teeth were chattering now in the cold. “We should …” Dick swallowed. “We should have a quick nap or something. Get our energy back. We’ll go - _err … -_ we’ll go scout out some stooges tomorrow.”

“It’s not gonna be easy as that,” Jason said, “we all know that.”

Damian knew that too. They hadn’t ate in at least two and a bit days. And now he were so hungry his fingers were trembling. He breathed slow as Dick’s warm breath heated his forehead.

Dick licked his lips and kept his eyes closed. “ _Let’s just sleep for now, yeah Jason_?”

Damian nodded and let his body sink into the cold concrete as if he weighed nothing. The tiredness festering behind his eyes was slowly claiming his entire body.

“ _Oi oi lads!_ ”

The voice came from nowhere and Damian’s eyes opened. Reggie? Was that Reggie?

Reggie popped his head up over the building and smiled that freckled smile. “Fancy meeting you lads here!”

Dick sat up from his place - momentarily forgetting his tiredness. “ _Reggie!_ ”

Damian felt a wave of elation and rolled onto his back and kind of sat up. “ _You made it._ ”

Reggie’s freckled cheeks stretched into a smile. “Couldn’t miss you lads blazing through these bloody streets like you own ‘em. Oi I dunno if I told you this before but _on the Queen’s life_ your American accents are bloody _dapper._ ”

Damian tensed in happiness and regarded him through tired eyes. “What you doing here?”

“Arh, it’s a long story lads.”

“Not as long as ours, I bet,” Tim said.

Reggie shrugged. “I were following Pearce. Been following him since he sentenced you to death. I figured I’d do some snooping like our Tim.

Damian’s eyes shot to Tim and he was watching Reggie intently.

Reggie pointed at Damian. “So when you - errr …”

Damian tutted. “ _Damian._ ”

“Right, Damian! When you got nicked I went down and pleaded with the man - proper pleaded with Pearce - but he don’t listen right good and he just slapped me upside the head.” Reggie sat on his haunches next to Tim. “Eh you alright, Tim?” he said and poked Tim in the chest.

“ _Oi_ leave it out Reggie,” Tim said and clutched his chest with a smile, “I bloody ache everywhere.”

Damian tutted. “ _Finish_ _the_ _story_ , _Reggie._ ”

“Huh? Oh right right! So anyways, I were following Pearce and then he turned into a corner and something happened.” Reggie’s sooted finger went onto his lip. “Something … happened …”

“What happened?” Dick said.

Reggie’s freckled cheeks were reddening as he furiously tried to think. “I can’t remember but it were something bad I remember that much. He were here, I lost him in these streets but he were here. I reckon he might live around here but ..” His eyes lit up. “ _Oh yeah I remember now!_ Pearce isn’t what he says he …”

Tim’s stomach rumbled and he clutched it, in effect cutting Reggie off.

The thought made Damian clutch his stretching own stomach and he frowned from the stabbing pangs of hunger that tore into his stomach and made his lips dry.

“You lads hungry?” Reggie asked with a frown, “I got some bread if you want it …”

What … _no_!. “ _Finish the story, Reggie,_ ” Damian said.

Reggie looked at him in confusion. “What story?”

Damian grit his teeth. “The story you were just say-”

“We must be stretching close to three days now, lad,” Jason interrupted, “what, have you got anything for us?”

Jason didn’t need to explain, but Reggie’s face immediately lit up with understanding. “ _Three days?! You lads are stretching close to three bloody days with no food?_ ”

“It’s alright Reggie,” Dick said, “we’re alright … we’ll just nab some more wallets tomorrow.”

Reggie shook his head and unstrapped the button on the pouch around his neck and pulled out a tiny portion of bread. “Here lads, it’s not much but it’s all I really got right now.”

At the sight of the bread, the pangs of hunger tearing into Damian’s stomach stabbed even harder and his mouth began to water. He couldn’t tear his eyes off it now and his brows were furrowed.

Dick’s trembling body regarded it. His mouth was watering and his brows were furrowed. He frowned deep and licked his lips. “ _It’s not enough for all of us._ ”

Reggie shook his head. “Nah, I’m dead sorry lads s’not much, I know. But I didn’t really know you were all that hungry.” He twitched his lips. “One of you can eat it atleast, eh Dick?”

Damian tutted. No one was gonna eat it now. He slumped back onto the floor.

Dick turned to Tim. “What d’ya reckon, Tim? You want it?”

Tim bit his lip and shook his head. “I can’t Dick. We all eat or none of us do. We agreed.”

Damian frowned and his head turned to Jason.

Jason’s brows were furrowed and he looked to Tim with his tongue in his cheek. “We all eat or none of us do _I stand by that_.”

Then Dick turned to Damian. “Damian, if you want it, honest you can -”

“All of us or none of us.” Damian tutted and turned away from the bread - as if not looking at it would allow him to forget about it. “ _Whatever I din’t even want it anyway._ ”

Dick turned to Reggie with a tired smile. “Sorry Reggie.”

“Lads,” Reggie said with a frown, “I’m so sorry it’s not more. I’ll go … I’ll go get you some more now.”

“Nah Reggie,” Dick said, “it’s alright, innit? You done enough.”

Reggie shook his head. “I ain’t gonna accept that. You lads are gonna get more than that. I’ll get you some grub now _sit tight._ ”

Dick nodded with a smile. “Cheers, Reggie.”

Reggie nodded and smiled a freckled smile, then he descended the building carefully, not as good at climbing as the lads just yet.

Dick collapsed his back onto the roof edge, and Tim slumped next to him. Damian slumped into Dick’s other arm, and they hugged into each other. “It’s alright. Tomorrow’ll be better, innit lads? We’ll go to Mr. Fox’s house tomorrow. See if he can’t give us no more potato soup.”

Damian leaned in closer to Dick and chuckled. “We already asked him so many times though.”

“Naa, it’s our accent,” Jason said. He wasn’t huddled with the other brothers but instead overlooking the rooftop. “Lucius loves it, says he loves talking to lads from his home country or something, so he’ll keep giving us soup so long as we ask, I reckon.”

“Lads,” Tim said from the other side of Dick, “I’ll say whatever he wants us to say in our accents if we just get one more taste of that soup. I promise you I’ll never complain about anything again for just one more taste.”

“It’s that leek in it,” Damian said with a smile, “that’s the best part.”

None of the boys said anything after that for a long while.

“Tomorrow’ll be better, lads,” Dick said.

“Yeah,” Tim said solemnly, “ _tomorrow._ ”

There was a long silence after that between all the lads.

-oOo-

For as tired as Damian’s mind was, he was finding it _bloody difficult_ to actually get to sleep. Damian did try hard, but there was nothing to stop the thoughts that kept creeping into his head. Thoughts of Wayne and Pearce and the weasels. It weren’t _bloody_ _fair_. They had everything … _everything_ … and Damian and the lads got _bloody_ scraps. Not even scraps … less than scraps. He shivered and clutched closer towards Dick. And the weasels ate in their huge mansions and found warmth in their bastard fireplaces and they didn’t once - _they didn’t once_ \- think that lads like Dick and Jason and Tim were starving all the time.

He tutted in Dick’s shoulder and then sat up with a frown, rubbing at tired eyes. And then there were his fight with Wayne. He couldn’t even believe how he were actually matching Wayne. Now that he looked back, he noticed he were actually like-for-like matching Wayne until Wayne shoved him in the shoulder. He tutted. He needed to be faster next time, _stronger._

Dick and Tim were still soundly asleep next to each other hunched up next to the ledge. No Jason though. Where was Jason? Damian’s eyes scanned around for him.

Jason was perched on the ledge and looking out over the skyline.

Damian staggered up and walked over to him and rubbed the back of his neck. “You been awake all this time?”

Jason acknowledged him with his black-circled eyes, and then looked back out into the street. “Couldn’t sleep.”

Damian rubbed his eyes and then rubbed his hair in frustration. His muscles cried for sleep. “ _Why_?”

Jason shrugged and carried on watching the skyline. “Wayne’s still out there. And somebody has to watch you idiots while you sleep.”

“You need sleep too, Todd _._ ”

Jason shrugged and yawned into the back of his hand, stretching his whole mouth out. “I’ll sleep when I can.” Jason thought for a few seconds. “I got a lot of thinking to do anyways.”

Damian nodded. “Me too.”

Jason chuckled. “What thinking you got to do, lass?”

“I were beating Wayne innit.”

Jason looked back out. “That you were.”

“You saw it?”

“Saw it? I couldn’t even _bloody_ believe it. And whatever you did sure as shit confused the _bloody hell_ out of Wayne.”

Damian tutted. “It were nothing, don’t be a retard. What thinking you got to do, anyway?”

Jason smirked. “You were never right good at taking praise, Damian.”

Damian said nothing.

“Maybe I am y’know.” Jason shrugged. “ _Retarded_ I mean. I keep thinking back.” Jason’s eyes flickered whilst he watched the skyline. “I were actually gonna kill Wayne, y’know? I were - I were seriously gonna wreck him.”

Damian said nothing again.

Jason frowned and furrowed his brows. “Maybe Dick was right, y’know?” He sniffed and rubbed the back of his hand across his nose. “Back on the boat, when them arseholes were tryina’ wreck me and Dick came to save me with that charm - disarmed them all - and met me for the first time with you and Tim.”

Damian remembered. “Were they beating on you for giving them lip?”

Jason nodded. “Yeah, they were. And Dick told me he was gonna help me ‘re-claim my dark heart’.” Jason thought for a few more seconds. “I didn’t know what he were on about at the time Damian, but now I think about it … maybe he were right. Maybe I do have a dark-heart.”

Damian looked back at Dick, remembering how Dick had found him when he was younger back in Gotham. That all seemed so long ago now. “You don’t have a dark-heart, Todd. You’re a better man than most. The ones with the dark hearts are the ones at the top … who can sit by and let me and you and Tim and Dick starve while they get fat and drive around in their bastard carriages.”

Neither of the brothers said anything for a short while.

“How comes you keep calling me by my second name, lass?” Jason asked honestly.

Damian shrugged. He kind of knew - it’s because sometimes … _only in mere moments …_ Damian actually thought he were better than Dick, Jason and Tim. He buried it as deep as he could because he _knew_ that weren’t true, but he couldn’t understand where it came from.

Jason looked out into the street. “Well, it suits you - calling us by our second names.”

“What? D’ya reckon?”

Jason nodded.

Damian looked at Dick again. “What we gonna do now? Dick’s getting way too jolly for his own good if he reckons we can actually pick some more pockets when we’re this _bloody hungry._ ”

“I’m thinking fight club,” Jason said.

Damian tensed. “You bring that up again in front of Dick, and Dick and you’ll have a scrap _I can already see it_.”

“I know, lass. Why don’t he realise we can use our skills for more than just bloody _pickpocketing?_ And I can take a punch like a champ.”

Damian tutted. “Scratch it off.”

Jason breathed out. “ _Fine._ What about peon work? We’re fast at sending messages, innit?”

Damian shrugged. “It’s unpredictable though, and not like we can definitely find people who always need messages sent. And we’re still too _fucking hungry_ to really run fast.”

Jason said nothing for a while. “ _There’s always the workhouses._ ”

Damian tensed. No, the workhouses weren’t even an option. That were as a _last_ resort for anyone who didn’t have much else, and the workhouses made sure you didn’t use them unless you absolutely had _no other choice._ The government only gave a shit about saving their pennies. “Scratch that off, Jason. We’re never staying in a workhouse.”

“ _They got food though, lass,_ ” Jason said, “and right now we’re pretty despe -”

“ _Scratch it off._ ”

Jason huffed. “Well what do you wanna bloody do, lass? What’s your flipping -” His eyes widened. “ _Pearce._ ”

Damian smirked. “What? You wanna try and rob Pearce again?”

“No _no_ _he’s there._ ” Jason pointed with his revolver onto the street.

A bolt of adrenaline burst through Damian and he pivoted towards the street. His fists scrunched into heavy fists. “ _No fucking way._ ”

Even through the smog and the daybreak, Damian could see the blonde bastard leaning against the wall under a lit street lamp. His palms clutched a newspaper, and he was puffing on a shiny bronze pipe clasped in between his lips.

Fury ripped through Damian’s veins and he ground his teeth together with an audible sound. His hands clasped onto the rooftop and he blazed holes into Pearce with his eyes. “ _You are not FUCKING serious._ ”

Jason grit his teeth. “ _What is he doing here?_ Why is he just standing there on his own _?_ ”

Damian’s face was seething with anger. _The bastard!_ “Look at him just _bloody_ standing there reading the _bastard_ _paper_. We’re _starving_ and he thinks I’m _dead_ and he’s just reading the _bastard_ paper!”

Jason cocked the revolver. “Let me go deal with him. Bone to what Dick says.”

He was just _standing_ there. He weren’t even a little bit sorry. Damian roared and smashed his fists down into the balcony. Then he sprang up on top and began ripping down the building.

Jason grabbed his collar and whipped him back.

Damian tutted and pushed at Jason’s clutched hand. “ _Let go of me!_ ”

“Alright, I get it, you’re pissed,” Jason said, “but Tim’ll kill you if you do this.”

Damian’s eyes didn’t leave Pearce’s _stupid fucking arsehole_ blond hair. “We’re dead anyway once the coppers get their mitts on us for holding up Wayne.”

“Dick’ll _definitely_ kill you if you do this.”

Damian tutted. “Dick won’t even know, _do you want to do this or not_?”

Jason watched Pearce for a couple of seconds. “Why do you want to do this?”

 _Jesus,_ what was with all these _fucking_ _questions_? “ _He tried to have me fucking killed, you retard_!”

Jason smiled. “You sure this what you want?”

Damian’s veins roared at the sight of him and he tutted and shoved at Jason’s hand again. “ _Let fucking go of me!_ ”

“Alright, let’s do it then lass.”

Damian stopped struggling and his eyes shot to Jason. “You’re gonna help me?” In a way, that were good about Jason. He didn’t give a shit about _principles_ like Tim did.

“Yeah lass,” Jason said and looked to Dick, “what Dick don’t know won’t hurt him. Pearce’s punishment _will_ fit his crime. We just don’t tell Dick or Tim about it.”

Damian nodded. “ _His crime is ordering my murder._ ”

“That he did.” Jason cocked the revolver. “But I still think it’s bizarre he’s standing there on his - _eh Damian where you going?!_ ”

Damian leapt off the building, clambering down even through the hunger and the pain. His body was crushing into the wall and he blazed down with pounces and leaps to the bottom of the building. He crashed onto the floor and began marching towards Pearce.

Pearce looked up momentarily - and then he did a double take when he realised it were Damian.

Damian roared and paced towards Pearce with Jason hopping down next to him and following his lead. “ _Lad, you need to control yourself._ ”

Damian tutted and his fists clenched so hard they hurt as he paced towards Pearce like some kind of death angel.

Pearce dropped the newspaper and lurched backwards. He snatched the pipe out of his mouth. “ _You._ ”

Damian’s heart raged in his chest and crimson clouded his vision.

Pearce almost crashed into a water pump and skidded past it. “How on earth did you survive?”

Damian’s heart spiked and he roared and smashed his foot into Pearce’s face.

Pearce sprayed blood out of his mouth and practically crashed into the wall on the side and skittered to the floor. He scrambled away from Damian.

Damian grasped at Pearce’s face and smashed his fist into the weasel’s jaw, throwing his whole shoulder into the blow. “ _You tried to have me killed, you bastard!_ ”

Pearce keeled into the street and scrambled backwards. “Now listen to me lad -” He crawled back with an outstretched hand to calm Damian. “You’re angry I understand ...”

Damian’s nostrils flared and his fist rammed into Pearce’s lip and then he roared from his lungs - deep and feral. “No-one to save you now, _Pearce._ ”

Pearce’s eyes were wide and terrified.

Jason was scanning the streets with his revolver clutched hard. “Alright Damian, let’s just do it.”

But Damian was unrelenting. “ _You didn’t even think about me! You didn’t even bat a BASTARD eyelid!_ ” Damian’s hand rammed into Pearce’s jaw again and his knee smashed into the man’s temple. This bastard didn’t scare him like Wayne did, all he saw was a pathetic waste of a man who _needed_ to die. Maybe he weren’t thinking this through properly.

Pearce dropped into a mess onto the floor.

Damian tutted and grabbed Pearce by his collar. “ _KNOW my face, Pearce. This is the face that you tried to kill … without asking me why WITHOUT ASKING ME WHY I tried to rob you._ ” Damian was trembling and he roared. “ _I was hungry, you bastard!_ ”

Pearce shook his head. “ _Alright listen! LISTEN! I understand, okay I understand. I’m like you. I’m from Lace Market too._ I know what it feels like … to be hungry for days.”

Damian’s eyes went wide. No _fuck him._ “ _You lie._ ”

“ _No no MARKET SQUARE,_ ” Pearce said, “it’s where you’re from, Market square. I know - I know. I’m from there too _stop this_.”

Jason’s eyes narrowed. “How’d you know about Market Square, weasel?”

Anger tore through Damian’s veins and he grasped harder at Pearce’s collars, clutching him up to Damian’s eye level. “ _You’re a liar!_ ”

Pearce half-chuckled and half-sobbed. “I lost my mother and father, lad. In an accident. They’re dead. _They’re dead._ ”

“ _No!_ ” Damian roared and bashed his fist into Pearce’s lip. “ _Street lads look after each other! You’re a liar!_ ”

“ _You forget - sometimes you forget your roots, y’know?_ ” Pearce dribbled blood from a broken lip and clutched Damian’s hands. “ _Will you really kill me, boy?_ ”

Damian’s eyes flickered between Pearce’s own. Were he really a street lad? How could he be … _street lads looked after each other._ “J-Jason?”

That was all the leeway needed for Pearce to reach for his cane and ram it into Damian’s leg.

Pain tore into Damian’s kneecap and he fell backwards and roared.

“ _Damian!_ ” Jason shouted.

Pearce’s cane rammed into Jason’s jaw and Jason crashed to the ground and dropped the gun.

His leg was searing and Damian scrambled up and tried to focus on Pearce quickly. Pearce weren’t like them. _Damian would never be like Pearce._

The shouts of coppers began echoing from behind them.

Damian was blind in his rage and pounced past Pearce’s cane and then gripped Pearce’s cane and chucked it behind him. He marched towards Pearce.

Coppers swarmed into the alley and grabbed onto Damian. They rammed him down to the floor with shouts and whistles being blown.

A bolt of fury flooded through him and he raged against the coppers, shaking violently. _No, shit!_ That bastard Pearce _weren’t gonna live through today._

There were at least three coppers trying to hold down Jason - who was angrily trying to straighten up against them.

Damian kicked out behind him and Pearce’s cane smashed into his shoulder. Suddenly, pain and adrenaline blazed into his shoulder, completely throwing his shoulder from the joint. Damian cried out and tried clutching his shoulder as a copper had his knee roughly holding down Damian’s cheek against the dirty water running through the alley.

Jason rammed his fist into the copper’s wrist until he let go, then threw his heel into the copper’s jaw and forced the others off himself. He rushed over to Damian. “ _Damian!_ ”

The coppers all boosted up quickly and rammed their feet into the two boys hard and fast, knocking Jason down again.

Both boys yelled out as coppers smashed into their tired bodies over and over again. The coppers were unrelenting; barraging the boys with all of their force.

Damian couldn’t even breathe and his hands tried to clutch everywhere at once - fresh cuts and bruises opening up all over his arms and legs and chest and face.

“ _Bring them here,_ ” Pearce said, “ _bring em here!_ ”

The coppers grabbed the boys and dragged them to their feet then chucked them in front of Pearce.

Damian limply dropped in front of Pearce and his body crashed against the floor. His breathing was slow and laboured. Blood seeped from below his hairline and several cuts over his body.

Jason got onto his elbows, labouring and spitting blood. “ _Let Damian go, now._ ”

Pearce rammed his fist into Jason’s face, knocking Jason into the concrete again. “Quiet, lad.”

Damian shivered and tried to take a breath. “ _Kill you …_ ”

Pearce sniffed and wiped at a bloodied nose. “You really did a number on me there, lad. You really are one _athletic … American … little bloody shit._ ” Pearce chuckled. Then he sat on his haunches next to Damian and cocked his head. “Did you honestly think I was just standing in the bastard cold and reading the paper to _kill_ _time_?”

Damian whimpered in the pain resonating from his shoulder and he coughed violently and swallowed. He were probably paying them off for something … but fuck knew what. You didn’t call that many coppers to meet you unless it were something big though.

Pearce grabbed Damian’s hair and pulled his face off the floor.

Damian clutched his eyes closed. His hands couldn’t move from their places and his breaths were coming out in rasps from his burning throat, but he weren’t gonna give Pearce the satisfaction of seeing his eyes.

“How did you get out of being hanged, boy?”

Damian spat blood at Pearce’s face.

Pearce dropped the boy’s head and he cried aloud. Then Pearce sniffed again and pulled out a handkerchief from his breast pocket - wiping the blood off from underneath his cheek and then dabbing his own bloodied nose with the clean side. “Pick him up.”

A bolt of adrenaline burst through Damian and his body began to shake again. A small tear erupted from his eye at the pain erupting from his fresh cuts. “ _I’ll kill you, you weasel._ ”

“So you keep telling me,” Pearce said, “but you didn’t answer my question.”

Jason roared from the floor and jolted Pearce. Then he struggled against the coppers, momentarily throwing them off and lunging at Pearce. “ _Let him go you bastard!_ ”

Pearce stepped back out of the way and his hands came up. “ _Urgh._ ”

The coppers immediately smashed his body to the floor again and held him again.

“ _Please - just please … sir …_ ” Jason pleaded, “ _just leave our Damian alone and do what you want to me._ ”

Pearce’s foot smashed directly into Jason’s face and Jason yelped out.

Pain was flooding Damian’s senses and he closed his eyes. His breath ripped out in rags.

“Get him up.” Pearce said and the coppers lifted Damian off the floor.

Pearce stretched his hand and then closed it into a fist. Then he sniffed and threw the fist into Damian’s jaw.

The shock impounded into Damian’s cheek and reverberated all through his head. He cried out loud and he crashed into the copper’s chest. His vision fuzzied for a moment and he tried to regain composure.

Pearce rolled up his sleeve. “ _Stand him up, STAND HIM UP FLASS._ ”

Damian whimpered and tried retreating into the copper’s chest.

Jason was still struggling against the coppers holding him down. “ _You bastard I’LL KILL YOU!_ ”

Pearce threw two more sharp blows into Damian’s face and then sniffed. “Give me your gun, Flass.”

Pure fear surged into Damian’s chest and he tried to squirm against the officer’s grip again. It weren’t so much the death that scared him - _even though that terrified him -_ it was dying by Pearce’s hand that made him shiver to his core.

“Wait Elliot _wait_ ,” the fat man named Flass said, “why don’t you let ‘em hang?”

Pearce flickered his eyes towards Flass as if he had just broken from a trance. “ _Hang._ ”

The man named Flass nodded. “I mean Gordon’s been sniffing around a lot lately … and if he caught wind of this …”

“Yes,” Elliot Pearce said, “quite right, Flass _quite right_. Always the wiser man.” He rubbed his eyes in both frustration and pain. “Take them away from me.”

Damian struggled against the coppers and Jason roared from the floor.

“Oh and Flass.” Pearce placed a pouch of coins in Flass’s hand and patted his shoulder. “See to it that this time that he does - in actual fact _\- hang_.”

Jason coughed. “ _You fucking piece of shit._ ”

Pearce crashed his fist into Jason’s throat. “What was that, lad?”

Jason keeled over, wheezing and clutching his throat. “ _Fucking - I’ll fucking kill you …_ ”

Pearce laughed. “Is that so? From where? _The_ _noose_?”

“ _You just watch me,_ ” Jason said, “ _I’ll kill you for this._ ”

Damian had his eyes closed and was trying with everything to stay awake.

Pearce grabbed Damian’s injured arm and pulled at the dislocated joint.

Pain ripped into Damian’s shoulder and his eyes snapped open and he cried out, grabbing onto his arm with his other arm.

Pearce pulled even harder. “ _Will you really kill me, lad?!_ ” He shouted over Damian’s scream.

The nausea was making Damian weak in the knees. He grabbed onto Pearce’s hand and limply smacked it with his own.

“ _Alright!_ ” Jason said, “ _just please stop hurting him!_ ”

Pearce cocked his head and pulled at Damian’s arm harder.

Damian cried out and tears streamed down his face and his breath came out in rags.

“ _I’m sorry!_ ” Jason cried, “ _please! I’m sorry, just stop!_ ”

Pearce smirked and let go of Damian’s arm.

Relief swept through Damian and the pain in his shoulder became numb as opposed to sharp. He took a few deep breaths all at once and clutched his shoulder with his breath hitching from the tears.

Pearce sat down in front of Damian.

Damian’s lips were moving even though no words were coming out and he tried to focus his attention on Pearce.

Pearce grabbed his hair and Damian grunted in pain. He pushed his lips to Damian’s ear. “ _Don’t think I hate you, boy. I don’t hate you_.”

Sweat and blood had mixed on Damian’s forehead, and his eyes were half-lidded and dazed as his throat made sounds of pain that he couldn’t control. Pearce clutched the boy’s head through his tears and pushed their foreheads together, closing his eyes. “You and me,” he said, “we aren’t so different.”

Damian didn’t move - his body giving out from underneath him like jelly. “ _W-w-world’s … apart …. me … an-an-and …_ ”

Pearce shook his head and rubbed his forehead against Damian’s own bloodied one. “No, you and me - _we’re the same boy._ ”

Damian said nothing and kept his eyes tightly shut in the policeman’s grip and clutched his own shoulder with tear-streaked cheeks resting into the copper’s arm. His breathing was still deep and shallow.

Pearce came away from Damian’s forehead and looked him in the eyes.

There was sadness in those eyes, Damian saw it. Or were it? If Dick were here, he’d be able to tell Damian.

Pearce dabbed some of the murk off Damian’s forehead with his handkerchief. “I just - I can’t go back to being like you, boy. I can’t. _I won’t._ ”

“What?” Flass said from behind Damian, “a boy, Elliot?”

Pearce shook his head. “No he reminds me too much of myself, Flass, I don’t like it.”

Flass chuckled. “Fair enough. What you want us to do with these two lads?”

Pearce looked at Damian’s face, then waved his hand non-chalantly. “Take them away from me.”

Damian mumbled something under his breath.

Pearce sat down next to him, placing his ear to the boy’s mouth. “Come again, lad?”

Damian spoke quietly. “ _We’re_ _n-not_ _alike_.” He swallowed and closed his eyes even as involuntary sounds kept coming out of his throat. “ _Nev-never._ ”

Pearce smiled. “No we’re both boys from Lace Market. I’m just … _better._ ”

“ _I’ll make you pay._ ”

Pearce put his ear closer to Damian’s lips. “Come again, lad?”

Damian struggled against the cops with what little energy he had left. “ _I’ll make you …_ _I’ll make you pay …”_

Pearce rammed his fist into Damian’s stomach, throwing Damian forwards as he coughed and choked.

A new pain had exploded into his stomach with that punch, followed by the gut-awful feeling that something had broken. Damian cried out loud and collapsed into the copper’s arm again.

Pearce clutched Damian’s cheeks with both hands. “Know I mean this when I say this, boy, I truly am sorry for …”

As if from no-where, a man in a full suit of armour dropped down between them.

And all the men scrambled backwards, startled.

Damian was dropped and he limply crashed to the floor, yelping as his body collapsed onto hard concrete.

The sounds of shouts and grunts filled the air, as well as the sounds of violence and tripping up and bones breaking from around Damian.

Damian gritted his teeth and cried quietly, clutching his shoulder. His whole body shivered in pain, and he wanted to open his eyes – to try to see what was happening. But the pain flooded his brain.

A hand came onto his shoulder. “ _Damian …_ ” Jason said brokenly, “ _Damian stay with us, okay?_ ”

Damian shivered and his breath was hitching quick and forcefully. “ _Stay ... um stay …_ ” Damian mewled. _“Jason … hurts …_ ”

Jason placed his head on Damian’s hair then he rubbed his hand through the blood and muck that had caked it. The sounds of violence still echoed from all around him. “ _Push through for me, Damian._ ” A tear dropped onto Damian’s cheek. “ _Please._ ”

Damian nodded quickly, his breath hitching in his throat and his hand clutching his shoulder. He sobbed again, his teeth chattering and his body completely numb. “ _O … okay … mm … for you Jason …_ ”

The sounds of violence stopped all at once.

Pain had ripped into Damian’s shoulder, as well as his skull, a sharp pain in his chest and searing pain in his leg. Damian lay on his side with his brother’s head next to his own. His breathing was in shallow breaths and he shook vehemently.

A hand rested on Damian’s hair. “ _Damian._ ”

A bolt of fear ran through Damian. It was the same deep voice of Wayne. He must have been the one who just knocked out all the guys that were beating on him and Jason.

“ _Get off him!_ ” came another voice from the side.

Damian was still in a pain-filled haze. Was that Dick?

A tall, dark haired boy barrelled over Damian’s own and pushed the armoured man back. “ _Stay the fuck back!_ ”

Damian smiled. It _was Dick._ His hand clenched the floor as if he were clutching Dick himself.

The man with the armour’s hands went up.

Damian slowly opened his eyes.

“ _Aww lads,_ ” Dick said and dropped to his knees in front of Damian and Jason, “ _no no please no._ ”

Jason shivered and spit blood. “ _Damian … check on Damian._ ”

Tim bounded over Jason’s body and sat next to him, his eyes darting between Wayne and Jason and Damian.

“ _Tim._ ” Dick’s voice was panicked and breaking as he clutched Damian’s cheeks. “Tim, what should I do _\- fuck what should I - ?_ ”

Tim was normally so collected. But now he was breaking up. It was kind of funny to Damian to see him like that right now. Right now that was funny. “Err … we need to ah - _stay with us, Jason, eh - stay with us!_ ”

Damian sputtered and the jolt involuntarily caused his shoulder to suffer.

“ _Alright alright Damian alright please don’t do this to me shshsh._ ” Dick’s eyes were wide and he gently shook Damian’s head, which caused him great pain in his shoulder and rib.

“ _Don’t do that_ his shoulder’s been dislocated,” Wayne’s deep voice came from behind, “we need to jolt it back into place.”

A burst of fear flood through Damian. He didn’t want to move, much less have them touch the most painful part of his body. He shook again and his eyes closed heavily. “ _Nn -_ ”

“ _Step back STEP BACK Wayne.”_ Dick was clutching Jason’s revolver with a tremble. “ _Don’t …_ ” Dick’s hand went to his hair and his face was flushed. His eyes darted on the floor as he tried to think. “ _Fuck don’t …_ ” His eyes were welling with tears and were on the floor. “ _Ermm …_ ”

“ _It’s not safe here_ ,” Wayne said, “we need to move before someone sees us. I’ve incapacitated Pearce and these policemen but there are always witnesses that can crop up right now. I don’t have time to explain but I can save Damian, you just need to _let me._ ”

Damian clenched up. No Dick … don’t trust him …

“Dick, _it’s bad,_ ” Tim said from besides Damian. “ _It’s … if he can help us …_ ”

Damian trusted his brothers more than anything but now he feared they were gonna make a huge mistake.

There was a long silence whilst Dick eyes darted left and right and his revolver was on Wayne. His voice was a sob now. “ _You can’t … if you fucking go near him …”_

Tim shoved Dick’s revolver down. “Dick, _listen._ He woke us up. When he ran past us on top of the building, he woke us up. Why would he do that if he were gonna hurt Damian? We don’t have no choices.”

Dick’s eyes were wide and fearful as they shot between Damian and Jason. “Errm … you …”

“Dick,” Tim said, “we need to make this choice quickly. If Wayne don’t take them in, _they’re good as dead._ ”

“ _You need to trust me, Dick._ ” Wayne’s voice came. “Your brother is right. I did purposefully wake you boys up when I ran past you on that rooftop. I did that because I needed you here. With Damian right now and _he needs you._ _You need to trust me._ ”

Dick shot his eyes around and then they went to Wayne’s own, wide and pleading. “ _Please don’t betray us, Mr Wayne._ ” Dick’s eyes were teary. “ _Please please don’t betray us._ ”

Wayne shook his head and clutched Dick’s cheeks. “I’ll never betray you. You can keep the gun trained on me.”

Dick nodded frantically and sat next to Damian and swallowed. “Wayne is gonna take you now, yeah?”

“ _No,_ ” Damian whispered. “ _No …_ ”

“Damian _please_ ,” Dick said with a breaking voice, “I got no choice, please don’t make this choice harder.”

There must have been an affirmative from Wayne because then he came over and sat beside Damian. “Damian … I’m going to need to do one thing that will hurt …”

A bolt of fear burst through Damian and he gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to move _what did his brothers not get about that_? He clutched the concrete underneath him. “ _Stay … away …_ ”

Wayne grabbed two armoured hands onto Damian’s shoulder.

The shock of the sudden cold of Wayne’s armoured palm and the tender pain that accompanied it around his shoulder cause Damian to yelp out and frown. “ _Please stop …_ ”

Wayne gently felt around the shoulder and prodded with the lightest of touches.

Every touch stabbed into Damian’s shoulder with pain and he grunted at each one through gritted teeth. “ _Stop … please … just get away from me …_ ”

Wayne held Damian’s shoulder. “Brace yourself, Damian.”

Damian’s teeth clenched tightly together and he grabbed onto Wayne’s hand with his free hand. “ _No …_ ”

“ _Easy …_ ” Tim said from beside Damian. “ _Easy Damian …_ ”

Wayne nodded and jammed Damian’s shoulder back into place.

A jolt of pain ripped into Damian’s shoulder right into his jaw and he screamed out loud, deep and hard. A fresh wave of tears streamed from his eyes and his shoulder screamed in pain. He grit his teeth, trying not to show any more pain but shaking his head as he clutched onto his shoulder.

“ _Damian, Damian! We’re here, okay?_ ” Dick said, grabbing the boy’s face and looking into it. “We’re gonna get you through this, okay? It’s over now, Damian the worst part’s over. _Please you need to come with Wayne now._ ”

Damian nodded frantically and grunted through gritted teeth and swallowed.

Wayne immediately scooped Damian into his arms.

Damian’s whole body jostled and he screamed aloud again as bruises on his sides and legs were horribly disturbed by Wayne’s actions. He clutched into the cold metal of Wayne’s armour and tried not to move.

“I’m sorry Damian,” Wayne said, “but we need to get you off the streets.”

Damian nodded again, his body jostling in Wayne’s arms which caused reverberations of pain around him.

“Just bear with me, Damian,” Wayne said, “soon you’ll be in a warm bed where you can rest. Just keep thinking about that bed.”

Damian nodded. Warm bed … warm bed … warm bed …

Wayne started moving fast.

Pain reverberated around Damian’s body and he cried out again and all thoughts of the warm bed left his brain. His whole body went to clutch Wayne’s armour, but it was just a cold mass that didn’t let out any heat.

“ _Get the watch,_ ” Jason said, “ _Dick … grab Damian’s watch …_ ”

Wayne stopped to allow for Tim and Dick to catch up in tow with Jason, and he pushed forwards towards his house.

“ _Damian,_ ” Wayne said and snapped Damian’s brain to him even in the pain. There was something different about his voice now. It was hushed and his brothers probably couldn’t hear it but was still _different somehow._ It was throaty, and it had an edge to it. “ _Can you understand me?_ ”

Damian nodded frantically, even though he couldn’t understand why.

 _“It hurts, I know, but you must push through._ _The way of the tears is the way to comfort, Damian._ ”

Damian was oddly soothed by these words.

“ _Sigh, my son, so you can rest._ ”

He began sinking into Wayne’s forearms.

“ _Broken and wounded hearts will recover._ ”

He suddenly found himself falling into a deep, heavy and peaceful sleep.

“ _The universe will encompass your voice._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N - Yeah ... so ... that ending, huh? :D
> 
> Also you guys know I'm a guy, right? Just thought I'd point this out because apparently some people get confused :L
> 
> Okay, I'm going to give you a HUGE A/n here which I'll delete as soon as I post the next chapter however I feel like I owe it to you guys to keep you updated. First this will eventually be split into two chapters to increase coverage, however when I split it, then the new chapter will be on it's way basically the next week after. On that note, I have actually no doubt that anyone who enjoys the interplay between the four brothers is going to LOVE the next chapter, it's basically just father/son fluff for 5,000 words as Wayne slowly wins the boys' trusts whilst Damian recovers - with Jason especially being hard to win over - and was my favourite to write so far :). In fact the plan for this story is around twenty chapters long, and it's going to get much huger, with these lads eventually becoming the four Robins we all know and love.
> 
> To all you guys who reviewed last chapter, I want to extend my warmest thanks. I'm not kidding, you guys are the only reason I write. Like the moment you stop leaving comments is the moment I stop writing. So no pressure or anything :). Seriously though, just tell me anything; tell me who your favourite Robin is so far, or what you think is going to happen next, just anything to let me know you are actually reading and/or enjoying it. Could I also ask that any guest reviewers that leave a review also leave a name? It just lets me know who's posting more than one review and also let's me know what to call you in any shout-outs I write up.
> 
> Also, I'm currently working two jobs - which basically means seven days working. That means not nearly as much time to write, so I can't guarantee updates will be fast, however I really love writing this story so do expect them on around maybe like a monthly basis. Right now I'm waking up at 6 to do some writing on this story before work which MY GOD is hard, but it's worth it :D the next chapter's pretty much written up so leave your reviews if you want to see it!
> 
> I also want to give a shout-out to Kaguya 2.0. She beta'd this chapter and therefore had an active contribution in writing it. If you want some really deep character studies that are also incredibly entertaining, you should try 'Falling Short' by her for the Megaman fandom. You won't regret it!
> 
> Let me know what you guys are writing also. I'm always open to leaving comments on other's works if they request it. And if you just want to talk, just PM me on FF!
> 
> I look forward to hearing back from you guys, and also to bring you the next chapter soon :)


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